


Children shouldn't play with dead things

by TopsyKretts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Dubious Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, First Kiss, First Time, Harry being creepy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Male Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:00:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9209123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopsyKretts/pseuds/TopsyKretts
Summary: He had died, the Dark Lord had killed him. Or at least that was what he thought had happened. However, when Severus Snape awakes in a strange house under an adult Harry Potter's care, he can't be so sure of anything anymore.Why is he even alive? and why is this grown Potter treating him with so much care and respect?As the days go by nothing becomes clearer but quite the opposite. Something wrong is happening to his body and his feelings. But why? He would have to find the truth even if he realizes he doesn't really want to.





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first Snarry so please, don't be too harsh on me :) I have had this story on my head for so long so I finally decided to write it down and share it wit you.  
> Just want to warn you a few things. Well, first, english is not my first languaje so I may make some, or a lot, grammatical mistakes. So sorry aout those.  
> I also wanna say that at the time I'm writing two stories so it may take me some time to update the chapters but hopefully not too long.  
> Ok, now last but not least, the story will have its happy moments but it may end up in a sad way :( That being said, I really hope you like it guys ad tell me what you think of it or what would you like to happen next :)  
> Enjoy it!

Blackness. Nothingness. That's all there was and then...

"Sev..."

"Severus..."

Somebody was calling his name from the distance, that much he could tell. But who?

"Severus!"

'Potter.' He thought, recognizing the voice that sounded a little closer now.

Of course it had to be Harry Potter. Everything in his life seemed to be one huge irony, why would his death be any different?

Potter's eyes were the last thing he saw before everything went black. He had tried to find Lily's in them and almost succeed, but just almost. There was something in them, something he couldn't quite put a name on, that was distinctly Harry's. And now it was his voice, a little different though, like deeper but definitely his, the first thing he heard now that he was... dead?  
But then that meant that Potter died too after all, either willingly to destroy the Dark Lord's last piece of soul within him or in battle fighting him, but died nevertheless. He would never admit it but the thought hurt him more than Nagini's bites had.

"Sev!"

The boy's urgent tone put on a way too informal use of his name, brought Snape back from his thoughts, although back where was still a mystery to him for the blackness remained the same but still, spirits or not he would tell Potter that there were some formalities to respect even in the afterworld.

So he opened his eyes slowly, finding out then that they hurt, the first thing he felt since what he presumed was the moment he died. His eyelids felt heavy, too heavy and the blinding light wasn't helping the matter but when a figure appeared in front of him, everything came into focus and the pain slowly faded away.

It was a kid. Not Potter but he resembled to him a lot. In fact, Snape thought that more than for it to be just a coincidence.

"Severus!" Potter's voice again, closer than before. But where was it coming from? 

He wasn't anywhere on sight nor could Snape move his head, or any part of his body for that matter, to look for the source of that annoying call. He could tell he was lying on his back though, for the perspective he had of the wooden ceiling and the kid practically hovering above his head, staring at him. But that was all he knew so what was happening there? Where was he and who was this kid? Why was Harry Potter calling him in that manner and where the bloody hell was he?

"Here you are!" Said Harry coming into view. Well, at least one of his question was answered. But something was off about him. He looked old. Well, not really old just older than the last time he saw him.

"I've been looking for you like crazy." Potter continued as he approached the boy and placed one hand on his shoulder. He wasn't calling him, he was talking to the kid! What was the meaning of that?

"What are you doing here Sev? I told you not to bother the professor."

"But dad, he's awake!" Said the boy with enthusiasm. 'Wait, DAD?!' Snape would have yell if only he could bring himself to move his mouth.

Harry's eyes then directed to the lying figure but Snape closed his eyes just in time, although why had he done that he wasn't sure.

"He's not son." Said Harry with something like sadness in his voice. "You know? sometimes I think I can see him awakening too. But-"

"But I'm telling you dad, he was really awake a few seconds ago!"

"Fine, fine, I believe you Sev. I'll check him then, but you need to go to your mom now. She's been waiting for you downstairs for quite some time."

"Do I have to go? Can't I stay here with you and professor Snape?" Said the kid in a pleading tone.

"You know you can't son, we've talk about this. As much as I would love to have you and your brothers staying here with me, how would mommy feel if you guys left her all alone?"

So there were brothers also?! Harry Potter had kids, in plural? And a wife?! Or if he was getting the conversation right, an ex wife. This must be what that character, Alice, from that muggle story felt when she fell down the rabbit hole and woke up in wonderland. 

"I know dad." The boy responded after a long sigh. "She would be sad."

"That's right. So go now, you can come back and spend the weekend here, would you like that?"

"Yes! Very much!"

Snape could heard then two pairs of steps walking away from him.

"Great. Now, remember our deal?" Harry said lowering his voice.

"Not a word to mom about the professor." Whispered the boy.

"That's right Sev. Now let's get you to her."

With that, they exited the room, leaving a very confused Severus Snape with his thoughts.

He couldn't even begin to form the questions in his mind. The last time he saw the boy he was precisely that, just a boy. Now he was a divorced man, father of kids with a supposedly dead former professor hidden on his house?! Oh, and that brought up the matter of himself.  
He had died! Or at least he thought he had but apparently he hadn't?  
Nothing was making any sense but whatever was going on there he wouldn't get any closer to understand it by simply lying there.

Snape opened his eyes again, this time with considerable less effort that before, and tried to move his head. The task seemed to drain all his strength completely but he managed to turn his head to one side just, for what he could see now, in the direction of the door.  
His timing couldn't be better, or worst, for in that exact moment Harry reentered the room.

When his eyes meet Snape's open ones his body seemed to petrified in place, his face turn pale and his mouth fell open but no words came out. He closed it and opened it again in a fail attempt to say something but still, nothing happened.

The sight would be hilarious for anyone, but not for Snape. He didn't find funny the fact that for already half a minute Potter had been babbling on the doorway like a fish out of the water instead of giving him some explanations or, even more urgent, assisting him.  
His muscles felt sore and no one part of his body, at exeption of his eyes and head, seemed to be responding his commands. He usually wouldn't ask for help but in his current predicament he wasn't sure what other options he had. Besides, whatever was happening to him he knew without doubt that Potter had something to do with it.

So Snape tried to open his mouth, to compel his vocal cords and tongue to form words but it was hard and painful. His lips trembled with the effort but in the end he managed to say:

"P-Potter..."

The sound was ragged and barely audible but broke the trance Harry seemed to be in.

"Professor Snape!" He said, rushing towards the bed in which Snape lie. "You really are awake Sir."

'Always the clever one.' Snape thought sarcastically but couldn't make that remark out loud.

"You're awake..." Harry repeated, more to himself than to anyone else to hear as he stood by the bed not quite knowing what to do next.

Snape saw this and almost rolled his eyes but decided against it. Instead, he put all his energy in saying something to direct the lost men beside him to do something.

"S-sit..." He said with effort and observed a confused Harry Potter turn different shades of red.

"You- you want me to sit next to you?" He asked hesitantly, only to gain a glare from his former professor. He hadn't known until that moment how much he actually missed that look but he did. A lot, if he was honest.

"Help- m-me- sit." Snape reformulated in a firm impatient tone.

"Oh, yes of course!" Came Harry's nervous reply.

He moved the bed covers aside and tried to figure out what to do with his hands. Should he just go ahead and pull Snape up by his arms? Or would it be easier if he took him by the shoulders? Would it be ok to touch his waist? Probably not, he thought.

Snape could read Harry's face like an open book, after at all, he had known him all his life, observed him since he was just a baby. He'd be damn if he couldn't recognize when the boy was at lost over something.  
So the situation was this: he couldn't move on his own and a petrified Harry Potter by his side was as useful as a wingless owl so, apparently, he would need to instruct the boy step by step on what to do if he wanted him to do anything at all.

He took a deep breath, discovering that his thorax hurted a little when he did that, and tried his best to elaborate a full sentence for him to understand.

"Up by th-the shoulders, pillow behind my back."

Once again his voice seemed to bring Harry back from deep within his thoughts.

"Right! Sure, professor." He said in an apologetic manner as he did as he was told.

It was, however, easier said than done. He never thought someone as slim as Snape could be so heavy but he was.  
Harry pulled him up with effort and then kept him into a sitting position as he managed to rearranged two pillows against the bed head post with one hand.

Snape would had scowl at him for making such a fuss over a simple task but as soon as the boy got closer to him, another matter caught his attention.  
For the first time since he had awoken, he was able to take a close look at the man before him. Yes, that was right, Harry was no longer the boy he remembered but a grown man. The lines of his face had sharpened and a very short stubble was perceptible. His body, dressed in ripped jeans and a long sleeve grey shirt, seemed broader and he even appeared to be taller but Snape thought that could just be due to the perspective from where he was watching him.

Harry was aware of the scrutiny but commented nothing on it. He knew what his former professor was observing, what his sharp mind was already deciphering and he would want some answers.

As if confirming that thought, as soon as he was settled on his new position Snape said:

"Explain. Now" He still felt pathetic, having to ask for Potter's help, but at least now that he had him at eyes level, well, almost, he didn't felt as helpless as before.

"It's- It's complicated." Harry said, sitting on an armchair put by the bed.

"Potter..." Came Snape's menacing tone.

"You need answers professor, I understand that, but anything I may say would only leave you with new questions and right now... I'm sorry but I can see you're too weak to make them."

"Do not presume to kn- know-" Snape tried to argue only to find that too long sentences leaved him out of breath.

Noticing this, Harry interrupted him before he could continue.

"See? Precisely my point." He said as he got up and exited the room hurriedly.

Was that supposed to be the end of the discussion? What was Potter up to now? Why was he refusing to throw him even a little piece of information? 

His absence gave Snape time to think about this and to take a look, from his new perspective, at his own body. Would there be anything that pointed out what was happening there?  
To his disappointment, there weren't. All he could see was his normal self, no older like he had been expecting after seeing a thirty five or so years old Potter, but normal. Exactly as he remembered himself only that dressed in a black tunic that he prayed to Merlin hadn't been put there by his former student himself. And that was another thing.  
Why was he there anyway? At Potter's house? With Potter playing nurse with him? And where the bloody hell was the boy now?

He was about to try his hardest to call him loud enough for him to hear no matter where he were when, suddenly, Harry bursted into the room carrying a silver tray on his hands with two little bottles and a goblet on it.

"Sorry I made you wait Sir but here..." He said, as he set the tray on a little table by the bed and started mixing the content5 of the bottles on the goblet.  
"Drink this. It will help with the pain you must be feeling in your muscles and the lost of strength of your limbs." He explained as he took the goblet and put it close to Snape’s sealed lips.

If Potter brewed those potions himself they were probably poisonous even if they were meant to be as harmless as pumpkin juice, Snape thought. But what options did he have at the moment? So he opened his mouth reluctantly, indicating Potter he could vert the liquid down his throat and so he did.

Harry was being extremely careful, and respectful,which only made Snape feel more frustrated about his own helplessness. Still, the professor bered with that until he finished the doubtful content of the goblet. Only then he said:

"My wand." 

His voice came still raspy but firmer and he even managed to open his palm as he pronounced the order so he supposed he was making progress.

"You're not being serious." Harry said with concern.

"Deadly s-serious."

"But you barely have strength enough to talk, let alone move and you intent to use your magic already?! No, I-"

"No?" Snape interrupted him losing what little patient he may have had. "I wasn't asking Potter."

"I know professor." Harry said lowering his head as he put the tray aside. "Look, I'm only trying to do what I think is best here, so you can curse me when you feel better and... believe me, I'll do everything to assure that you do." He finished finally looking Snape at the eyes.

Now he knew he must be in fact in another dimension because was that concern and maybe even... caring, in Potter's eyes?  
If they were both truly alive and no in some twisted form of limbo, it must be because the boy had in deed killed the Dark Lord, which implied that the Dark Lord had first killed the fragment of his soul that lived inside Potter, which meant, most likely, that Potter had sacrificed himself after learning that particular piece of information. Information that was contained on his memories, there and there alone, for the only two people who had know about that were dead, or so he thought. So, in conclusion, yes, Potter must have seen his memories.

The thought of that filled Snape with a feeling he didn't dare put a name on. Now the boy knew everything, that he had turned to the dark side, allowed horrible things to happen, done horrible things himself, that he hadn't been brave enough to confront the Dark Lord even when he finally realized where that path was leading to. How many people had he allowed to get hurt, Lily included.

And that was another thing. Lily. Now Potter also knew about his feeling for his mother, the only woman he had ever loved and would always love. How weak, coward and pathetic he had been all his life. Yes, now the man standing in front of him knew that. So, was it really caring what he could see on those eyes? Or simply pity?

Snape had never, or not in a long time at least, felt so ashamed, and at the same time, furious. The great Harry Potter pitied him. That was why he was taking care of him, treating him carefully, as if he were made of glass or were some poor little creature incapable of knowing what was best for itself. But he'll be damn if he, Severus Snape, was going to let that continue.

"Listen you little petulant child-" He started saying but whatever may had been the end of that sentence died in Snape's lips as an owl chose that precise moment to make its entrance on the room.

It delivered a letter from the Ministry of Magic, Snape could tell from the seal on the envelope. He could also tell that whatever it was written on it couldn't be good news, if Potter's face was a reliably indicator, which always was.

"I'm sorry professor, I need to go now." Harry said with distress. "I'll tried to be back as fast as I can."

'Totally unnecessary.' Snape thought. If he could just retrieve his wand he wouldn't even be there at all by the time the boy were back.

"Anyway..." Harry continued as he made his way to the door. "You probably won't even notice I'm gone." He looked at his former professor one more time, a sad smile forming on his lips, and with that he exited the room.

What was the matter with the boy now? He was for sure in troubles if the Ministry was calling him for an audience with such short notice. And what was he supposed to do in the meantime?

'What did you planned for my day then Potter? Since you are so convinced you know what's best for me.’ Snape thought. ‘ Should I what? Just doze off... simply because you...? Where were you going to?' It didn't make any sense that he couldn't remember, he knew the answer to that wuestions just a seconds ago. But he was feeling sleepy now. 'Could it be... the potions?’ No, he hadn't smell flobberworm mucus or lavender on them but then, what was causing this?

The sound of what must been the front door lock was the last thing he heard before falling completely asleep.


	2. Standing up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With every step he takes, Snape stumbles with a new truth. With every new truth, a million questions arise. What is Potter hiding and why is he behaving so... weird towards him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys ^-^ I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Sorry for the wait and oh, I forgot to say this before but as you all know characters are not mine nor do I make money with this :)  
> Ok, hope you like it :D

He was in the Forbidden Forest, that much he could tell. It wasn't autumn, he didn't knew how he knew but he did, and yet the leaves were falling from the trees. 

'It must be due to the wind.' He thought looking up, noticing another thing. The sky, it seemed darker than usual. But why?

A sudden sound diverted his attention then. A voice. He couldn't decipher what it was saying but it was saying it with so much bitterness and sorrow that it made something deep inside him hurt.  
He tried to identify the source of the sound and that's when he saw it. A dark figure on his knees looking for something on the forest ground.  
He knew that instant who that person was. He just knew.

"Potter..." He said approaching the boy. Not walking, not flying, he just thought he needed to be by his side and before he knew it he was.  
"What are you doing?" He asked and what the voice, Harry Potter's voice was saying became clear.

"I can't- find it professor." The boy answered without looking up from the ground where his hands desperately fumbled between the fallen leaves. "I need to find it!"

Now what was the boy talking about? What was this thing he so needed to find? Snape was about to ask him that when he suddenly hearded a second voice say:

"It- doesn't- matter. You should leave things as they are." It was his own voice, he realized. But how? He hadn't meant to say that.

"No!" Came Potter's desperate yell but, finally, he stopped his search to look at the professor.

 

The boy was paler than usual, skinnier as well and something about his face seemed utterly odd. It was as if some sort of light of it were gone. But his voice, Snape decided, was the worst. It sounded broken, no one trace of the bravado he used to call arrogance was left on it.

"I- I need..."

"To be the hero once more." Came his own voice again against his will.

"No!"

"Is not enough to save the most, you need to save us all and if you can't..."

"No!" The boy yelled but no anger could be perceived on his tone, only pain.   
"No..." He repeated, this time in a whisper. "After all this years of- of watching me and still... you don't know me, you don't know what I- want, what I need."

"Then enlighten me, Potter." He said with irritation. "What could the savior of the Wizarding World possibly need?"

"You Snape." Harry answered, tears forming on his eyes. "I need you."

. . . 

Snape awoke panting, drops of sweat rolling down his forehead. What had all that been about? 

"Professor!" Came a concerned voice he barely registered.

He had long ago learned better than to let a very possibly revealing dream pass without an extensive scrutiny, but for the first time on his life he didn't know where should he start.

"Professor, please!" Potter was calling him, of course, he was stuck with him.

And surely, he was a piece of the puzzle, but he wasn't talking. If only he could retrieve his wand and use Legilimency on him. But since when had life been that easy for him?

"Professor, come back to me!"

That snapped Snape out of his thoughts.

'Wait... come back to me?... I need you?' He repeated a few times on his head. 'That is strange, even for Potter.'

"It was just a dream Sir." Harry said.

He realized then he hadn't yet said a word to the boy sitting on the bed by his side, obviously worried sick. As to why that was it was a mystery.

"Get up Potter, I know how to recognize a dream when I'm having one."

That made Harry smile.

"Sorry, professor." He reply raising from the bed. "I see you're already talking better."

"Indeed. I have now one more faculty than a vegetable does, so would you help me get up from this bed so I may not become one?" Snape said in a bitter tone.

"Of course Sir, but if you get dizzy or something you let me know so I can put you back to bed."

"I'm not a child Potter."

"Well, you were calling my name in your sleep like one of my- like a child, that's for sure." Harry said correcting himself, not wanting to reveal too much information for the professor to take in for the moment.

"As if I would do such thing." Snape angrily replied. He hadn't miss the boy's slip but making a comment on it then was not the way to make him talk.

"Whatever get you through the night professor." Harry told him but a smile drew5 on his lips as he started to pull the bed covers away and helped Snape sit like he did the day before.

He still wasn't in full control of his limbs nor did he had strength enough to move them on his own, but when Potter helped him sit he was able to stay in that position without needing to rest his back against the wooden headpost of the bed. It wasn't much but it was progress.

"Excuse me professor but I'm going to need to- to grab your... to-" Harry started babbling not quite knowing what to do with his hands, his cheeks turning different shades of pink.

"For Merlin's sake Potter, just grab my legs!" Snape barked out losing his patience.

"Yes, sorry."

Turning even more red, Harry did as he was told. He grabbed the professor's legs and pulled them to the edge of the bed. Snape planted his feets on the red carpet besides the bed and using both hands to push himself from the mattress, tried to compel his body to stand up.  
He could feel Potter's eyes on him and was grateful that the robe he was wearing was long enough to cover most part of his legs and arms. He had never fancied the idea of exposing his body much, especially not with all the scars and that one mark he knew would make anyone feel sick to their stomachs. Besides, this wasn't some mediwitch seeing him in such a state, this was one of his students, well, former student but still. The situation was awkward, to say the least, and Potter's attitude wasn't helping the matter.

"So, Potter, as you already are delighting me with your presence and I apparently already have the full of your attention, would you be so kind as to help me stand?!" Snape said raising his voice at the last part of the sentence as to enfatize, startling a very oblivious Harry.

"Right! I'm sorry sir b- but-"

"But what?! Loose the bloody babbling? It's exhausting really Mr Potter."

"Fine! I was going to say then what?" Harry said losing his temper. Now that was a Harry Potter Snape could recognize.

"What do you mean?" Snape asked raising an eyebrow.

"I help you stand and then what? Where do you intend to go? You can't walk on your own."

"Well, I don't know what I would do without you to point at what's rather obvious Potter."

"I'm only trying to help you professor."

"Then help!"

"Fine! As you wish!" Harry snapped, taking Snape from under his arms and pulling him up very unceremoniously.

Unexpected as it was, his outbreak ended up with the both of them trying hard not to hit the ground as Harry, supporting now the full weight of the professor, lost his balance.

"Brilliant as always Mr Potter." Snape commented angrily between gritted teeth, doing what he could to remain on his feets.

"Oh, thank you sir." Came Harry's sarcastic tone. "Have you been gaining some weight lately?" He said as he managed to stabilize them both with his hands on Snape's waist and the professor's on his shoulders.

"Hardly." Snape answered, too concentrated on staying up as to feel offended.

Harry used his distraction to take the time to look at the man in front of him. He truly admired him, his strength, his determination, how he always got back on his feets no matter what. He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't noticed his former professor looking back.

'There it is again.' Snape thought. 'That look that says he's either feeling sorry for me or disgusted. Well...' "Spare me Potter." He said out loud with anger.

"I- I'm sorry." Harry babbled once more only then realizing he had been staring. "Spare you? From what?" He asked confused.

"Of whatever emotion I for some reason seem to evoke in you."

"I don't know what you're talking about sir." Harry said turning even more red.

Suddenly he noticed just how close they were. With Snape barely standing on his own, supporting most of his weight on him, the distance between their bodies was almost nonexistence. Harry needed to do something about that.

"Anyway professor..." He said nervously when the professor didn't commented anything further. "What now?"

Snape considered the question for a few seconds. In order to recover he needed to gain strength on his limbs. His arms already seemed to be a little better but his legs were still mostly useless. So he needed to walk to get them to function. But before that he needed to change that tunic. There was nothing wrong with it but it wasn't appropriate to be wandering around in bed clothes ad besides, after his very vivid nightmare, he felt all sweaty and it was disturbing.  
So he would walk but before he needed to change and even before that he needed a bath and that right there was a huge problem. He just thanked Merlin for magic existed and said:

"Cleaning charm, Mr Potter."

"Sorry, what?" Harry asked oblivious to Snape's mental process.

"Must I repeat every word I say or will you pay attention from now on?" He reply with a scowl. "I said cleaning charm, Potter, as it directed to my person. I'm in need of a bath and a change of clothes."

For a moment Harry just stood there, in that awkward position, gaping.

"Potter!" Came Snape's urgent tone startling him.

"S-sorry sir."

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, I did."

"And well? What are you waiting for? Take out your wand and..."

"I can't." Said Harry looking down.

"What do you mean you can't? It's a first year spell, Potter. Surely even you ca..."

"I know how to do the spell Snape." Harry interrupted him losing his patience.

"Then - do it!" Snape answered equally exasperated.

"I - can't!"

"Why the bloody hell not?!"

"Because...!"

"Because what?!"

"Because I can't do magic!" Harry yelled in Snape's face.

The professor then looked at the boy in front of him. The despair in face was genuine, he wasn't lying.

"You can't do magic?" He asked, a strange feeling arousing inside of him.

"No." Came Potter's soft voice. "It's... complicated but it's only temporary. I will have it back, at some point, however..."

"However what?" Said Snape raising an eyebrow.

"Well... we will have to- to do..."

"You're doing it again Potter."

"Right! No babbling, sorry. Well... here it goes." Harry said taking a deep breath. "We will have to do everything in the muggle way. So if you need to take a bath I- I will-"

"Oh no, you won't!" Snape snapped, suddenly needing to put some distance between the boy and himself or else he would hex him with a wandless curse. "Give me my wand, I'll do the spell myself!"

"But sir-"

"I said give me my wand Potter! Now!"

"I don't have it alright?!" Harry yelled.

Snape then could feel his blood running cold. His wand, the wand that had chosen him all those years ago, that had been his companion through darkness and light equally, was lost.

"I'm sorry." Harry said looking down. "I will try to retrieve it professor, I promise. I should have done it a long- I mean, some time ago, not that you have been unconscious for too long but... but don't worry, I'll do everything I can now to-"

"Potter."

"Yes?"

"Do shut up, you're giving me a headache."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

They remained in silence for a few minutes, neither of them wanting to address the subject previously discussed.  
Snape was grateful he still didn't have other natural needs that also included the bathroom only not so much the shower, but why he didn't was a mystery. He didn't felt hunger either. He thought that was odd but was grateful for it nevertheless.  
Still, a shower. It would be too awkward to have Potter helping him with that so he took a deep breath and preparing himself to sleep and possible walk around in his own sweat, he said:

"I don't need a shower that much."

Harry just stared at him open mouthed for a couple of seconds.

"Yes you do." He said taking a step towards the room's private bathroom, pulling the professor along with him.

Snape was forced to follow. It took all of his strength and willpower to put one foot in front of the other but he managed to do it. He was content with his progress but no so much with where was it leading him.

"No, Potter, stop this right this second. I do not want your help and-"

"You may don't want it..." Harry interrupted him without changing his course or stopping. "... but you need it."

"Gghh you stubborn child!" Snape grunted. "And it never occurred you to hire someone to help me then?"

"That's brilliant professor! I tell you what, when money starts growing on trees I'll do precisely that."

"Actually, there is a siberian specimen that-"

"Oh, please. You're not serious are you?" Harry said stopping right on the entrance of the bathroom.

"I'm always serious Mr Potter." Snape answered without humor.

"I noticed that."

"But I do not understand. You have money. Gold to be precise. Mountains of it."

"Had. I had money. Not any more."

"What happened? If you don't mind me asking."

"I donated it, for war reparations of the castle."

"So Hogwarts was...?"

"Pretty much destroyed to the ground, yes."

 

Snape face darkened then and Harry knew it was too much for the professor to take in right then. He needed to divert his attention and quickly.

"Can you take your clothes off?" He said at lack of a better idea.

"I beg your pardon?" Snape reply, his eyes going wide.

"For the bath, unless of course you prefer to remain fully clothed."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, that would be preferable."

"Oh, come on! You can't take a bath with your clothes on Snape." Harry said laughing as he took the professor's hands, still on his shoulders for balance, and placed them on the edge of the sink so he could start preparing the bath.

"I can and I will." Replied Snape with severity.

Harry opened the tap, checked the temperature of the water and as the bathtub filled, he turned around and looked Snape at the eyes.

"Can we please behave like adults here?"

"It would take at least two adults to do such thing and I only see one in this room."

"Yeah, me. Now hurry up and undress." Harry said reaching for the front buttons of his former professor's tunic.

"No!" Snape yelled, shame making him angry. "Keep your hands to yourself Potter."

"Please professor, you're only making this harder. Besides, there's nothing there I hadn't see before so-"

"WHAT?!" Came Snape angry voice.

Harry's face turned white and right after a deep shade of red.

"I- I mean be- because I'm also a man!" He tried nervously.

Not convinced but not seeing a way around it, Snape scowl and said:

"Fine. Turn around."

Harry obeyed, grateful for not having to look at the professor's face any longer. If he did the older wizard may see, may discover his secret. No, he couldn't let that happen.

Snape fought with the buttons but his fingers were barely responding to his will. At this rate it would took him a whole week to get his tunic unbuttoned and another to take it off.

'Bullocks.' He cursed in his mind. "Potter."

"Yes sir?" Said Harry turning back around but keeping his eyes nailed to the floor.

"Look up boy, I'm fully dressed still."

"What? Why?"

"Because..." Snape started but couldn't finish the sentence. He felt so pathetic in his current position.

"Because what?"

"Because I can't! Are you pleased?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh sure Snape, my whole life I've been dreaming with the moment I get to undress my potions professor. So yeah, I'm pleased."

Snape made a disgusted face at the joke but didn't commented on it. Harry kept quiet as well and started unbuttoning the older man’s tunic.   
He was so nervous his hands were trembling, which only made his task harder. Snape saw this but didn’t commented on it either. He could only imagine how the boy must felt. Having to see one's old hated profesor naked couldn’t be easy for anyone.

“I never hated you Snape.” Harry said making him come back from his thoughts. 

“What did you said?” He asked. There was nothing that could have motivated that asseveration except what he himself had just thought and there was no way the boy could have known that, not without Legilimency and he hadn’t used it.

Something definitely weird was happening there and Potter was a dead end. He wasn’t talking, but maybe if he pushed harder or perhaps the right buttons he would get to the bottom of it all.

“Potter…” He tried, but Harry didn’t answered. He just remained concentrated on his task, undoing button after button until he reached the last one at the middle of the the chest. And then he stopped. His eyes focusing in something there, on Snape's pale skin.

Harry's hand then seemed to move on their own volition when he placed his open palms on Snape’s chest, making him gasp at the surprise. For a moment that's all the boy did, but then his fingers started tracing the scars on the bare skin under them as he said:

"She really... hurt you." His voice coming out so much like a whisper that Snape doubted he had meant to say what he did out loud.

He saw his chance there and said the only thing that made sense in such a bizarre situation.

“No.” Breaking Harry from his trance and making him look at him in the eyes. “She didn't hurt me, Potter. She killed me. So tell me, why am I here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? You liked it? Can anyone tell whats going on already? I hope I'm not being that predictable but maybe I am, just tell me what your conclusions are :)


	3. Questioning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape would not settle for scraps of information anymore, but how can he corner a boy for answers when said boy has cornered him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :) I hope you’re liking the story so far.  
> Again, sorry for the many grammatical mistakes you’ll probably find, english is not my first language and this is not beta readed. But I hope you can still enjoy it.
> 
> Something I forgot to say before:
> 
> “this” is for dialogue.  
> ‘this’ is for thoughts.
> 
> I hope you like this chapter :) enjoy!

Every bone in his body, every muscle, told him to move, to put some distance between his former student and himself. He knew the boy was only trying to help him and that there was no second meaning behind his touch, how could there be? But their unnecessary closeness and the hands still planted on his bare chest, were inappropriate nevertheless. And besides, they felt strange.

Potter's hands felt like burning fire on his skin, only that instead of hurt him they made him feel... fuzzy? Snape would die of embarrassment if someone find out he used that word, even if it was only in his head, to describe what he felt, but he couldn't think in another one that fitted better. At least not right now.

His only consolation was that the boy in front of him seemed to be in a similar lost of words. Yes, after he addressed the elephant in the room directly, Potter had just stood there gaping. Snape thought that were the subject in discussion not his own life, he could have even found it funny. But it was his life what they were talking about, so he didn't have time to laugh, he needed to make the boy talk.

"Potter, answer the question." He said with a severe tone.

...

"Potter! I'm getting really tired of y-"

"Hermione." Harry finally managed to say, realizing just then where his hands were and taking them away immediately.

"Miss Granger? What does she have to do in all this?"

"She- she saved you Sir."

"Hmm did she?" Snape questioned with distrust. "How?"

"Well... her bag!" Harry quickly said busying himself looking for some shampoo, cream and salves for his professor's bath. Anything that give him an excuse to not have to look at the man in the eyes.

"I expect you to elaborate further than just the mention of an accessory Mr Potter."

"Yes, I was going to. You see, there was this little bag, or purse, I never really understood the difference, that she carried with her everywhere and I mean everywhere, not that I had find it annoying, it was a nice bag, a little odd looking if you ask me but-"

"Go to the point boy! And is just a regular bath I intent to take not a spa session!" Snape yelled running out of patience. 

"Sorry." Said Harry, putting the salves aside and turning around towards his professor with resignation.  
"Well, the point is that this was no ordinary bag, it was like Mary Poppins' bag, you know? Mary Poppins, the nanny that-"

"I'm familiarized with the story Potter, go on." Snape interrupted him.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought... well, since it's a muggle story..."

"Muggle, yes, but based in the life of a witch nevertheless."

"Really?! I would never have guessed it."

"If the magic or the different dimensions, or perhaps the moving paintings weren't clue enough, the flying should have give her away but, then again, it's you we're talking about."

"On my defence, what you just said describes almost half the fantasy muggle stories so I should not feel offended." Harry said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"No, you're right." Snape responded raising an eyebrow. "What you should be doing is getting to the bloody point of how on earth does Miss Granger's magical bag had anything to do with me not dying that night."

At hearing those last words, Harry's expression changed and for a moment, Snape could see a flash of that sparkless boy in the forest from his dreams. But the man now standing in front of him quickly recovered and as he fumbled through the shelves for a towel, he continued.

"She could take pretty much everything out of that bag, all the essentials at least, potions included." Harry said coming to a stop but still refusing to look at the professor's eyes. "So that night, when you... when we almost lost you, she took from the bag a potion, a very powerful one."

"A potion? Which potion?"

"I- don't- remember it's name but it was a powerful."

"Yes, you mentioned that."

"Well, it was. One that stops the body systems, as she explained to us."

"Which systems?" Asked Snape incredulously, trying hard to remember a potion with such faculties but having no luck.

"Hmm, well... all of- of them." Harry stammered. "Like the... blood system."

"You mean the circulatory system."

"Yes! That's why you didn't- bleed out from your wounds or why Nagini's poison didn't spread through your body."

Snape wouldn't have make it as far as he did if he wouldn't have a certain talent to recognize opportunities where it seemed to be none. And right then, he saw one. One opportunity to find out how much truth was in the boy's words or if there were any truth at all. So he look at him and said:

"Nagini's poison has no antidote Potter, even if I somehow survived the night with the help of such miraculous potion, I should have died in the morning."

Harry had no immediate answer to that, and that alone was a sign. However, after a couple of seconds of gaping like a fish out of the water, the boy finally answered.

"Well professor..." He said looking Snape at the eyes with determination, with too much determination, almost as if he was forcing himself to do so, he thought. "You see, the potion stopped the dispersion of the poison through you system, entirely, giving us time to research and make an antidote. That's the reason why you've been unconscious all this time. It took us years to find it and yet, because of the potion you haven't aged a day. As I'm sure you have noticed, years have passed."

"How many years exactly?" Snape asked with severity, tired of getting scraps of information for his own good, according to Potter, who was now sighing, dramatically so in his opinion.

"Look, I'll tell you." Harry said. "But you have to promise you won't get upset or-"

"Mr Potter, I have been standing here, supporting my own weight on my legs, which in my condition is taking all of my strength, half undressed, with the filth of Merlin knows how many days, chatting with you for the last fifteen minutes. I'm already upset."

"I'm sorry professor, you're right. Well, here it goes." Harry said taking a deep breath. "It's been twenty years since that night."

"I- figured that much." Snape reply, trying hard to conceal his emotions so they would not show on his face but... 'Twenty years...' he repeated again and again in his mind. That was a long time. 

Between that and the Dark Lord being gone, he wasn't sure he would even recognize the Wizarding World anymore. He supposed it was a better world but still. What had happened since the war? He knew Hogwarts had been rebuild. That was good news. But what about the Ministry? And the Dark Lord's followers? Had they all been captured and faced trial?

"I'm sure..." His former student said interrupting his thoughts. "... you have many questions right now but you should give yourself time to process what you already know before adding more information. So..."

"So?" Snape asked, feeling irritated towards the boy in front of him for telling him what to do, because yes, despite his age, Potter still was a boy in his eyes.

"The bath? If you're having trouble staying up in your feets we better do this now so you can go back to bed."

"Hmm perhaps that would be best yes."

There was an awkward moment that followed that sentence. Neither of them moving, neither looking at the other. The difficult part had come and nobody wanted to be the one making the first move.  
After about five minutes of having look all there was to look on that tiny bathroom, twice, Snape decided it was enough.

"Mr Potter, I was under the impression you would be assisting me..."

"Yes, of course professor." Harry rushed to say as he tried to figure out what to do with his once again trembling hands. "Should I-? Hmm... I should... take o-off your-"

"You're making this impossible Potter!" Snape yelled losing his temper. "Stop babbling like an imbecile and start behaving like the adult you are!"

"Fine!" Harry yelled back and with that he forced himself to act. 

So he took Snape's tunic from the bottom and pulled it up, trying hard not to turn as red as a tomato but failing miserably. The silky fabric slide well until it got stuck in the man's almost unresponsive arms, which he managed to rise a little but no more than at his chest high.  
With Snape tangled from the waist up in his tunic and Harry pulling at the fabric trying not to touch the man himself the situation was almost comical but neither of them were laughing.  
Finally, the tunic came off and Snape was left standing there completely naked in front of an impossibly red Harry Potter.

"Is not very polite to stare Mr Potter." Snape commented to Harry's mortification, who knew better than to deny it, for he had, in fact, been staring.

He knew he shouldn't have but he couldn't help it. The man in front of him was astonishing. Maybe not many people thought so, but in his eyes he was.  
His body was lean and while he didn't have marked abdominals and pectorals, his muscles were firm. But what he loved the most was his skin, pale, almost translucid, and soft. Harry could still remember how it felt to the touch. How it felt when he traced with his own fingers those lines on his hips leading to his-

"Potter!" Came Snape's furious voice startling him. "What the hell did I just said about staring?!"

"S-sorry sir." The boy said looking down embarrassed. "I'll help you into the tub now if that's ok."

"Do so."

And so Harry did. He grabbed his former teacher's arms, letting him support part of his weight on him again, and leaded him to the edge of the tub.  
Once there, when it became obvious that Snape couldn't raise his legs enough to enter the tub by himself, Harry leaned down and took first one leg, pulling it up and into the tub, and then the other to repeat the motion.  
He tried to be methodical but it felt so intimate. Snape being so exposed for only him to see, so... fragile under his care. He only hoped the man didn't know how much he was enjoying it. But he did.

Snape noticed Harry's hands on him lingering a little longer than necessary. And his eyes, Lily's eyes, burning holes on his skin. Why was the kid looking at him like that? With that unsettling expression he couldn't quite put a name on. If anything, he was hoping to find repulsion or disgust on his former student's face but instead he saw... no it couldn't be what he thought he saw. It was ridiculous so there had to be something else.  
Potter was acting weird beyond what was normal for him this days. But then again, that was probably the fear of being caught after lying at his face like he just did. 

'Powerful potion my arse.' Snape thought, as Harry helped him sit on the bathtub.

He was going to discover the truth one way or another, it was a matter of time. He just needed to keep pushing Potter and make him stumble with his own lies. That was it.

"Is the temperature of the water good sir?" Harry asked bringing him back from his thoughts.

"It's acceptable yes." He answered, trying to ignore the boy's eyes on him but using what little strength he had gained on his arms and hands to move them to his front and cover his crotch.

He knew Potter couldn't possibly be interested in what was there, maybe he just never saw another man naked and was only trying to compare himself with him, but still. His staring was making him very uncomfortable.  
However, that went to ocupate a second place on his mind when the boy's hand started to massage his scalp.

"What are you doing Mr Potter?" He asked, making Harry laugh a little.

"This?" He said. "It's called washing your hair. You should try it sometime professor."

"I do not appreciate the joke Potter. I do wash my hair-" Snape tried to respond with severity but stopped when he noticed his voice waving.

Harry's finger were touching the sensitive spot behind his ears. He just thanked Merlin the boy had decided to sit on the edge of the bathtub at his back rather than in front of him so he wouldn't see the heat rising to his cheeks.  
It was silly but not voluntary. Harry wasn't just washing his hair, he was massaging his scalp! His fingers skimmed the skin of his head slowly, tenderly. His nails scraping just the right amount. It was maddening.

Snape was considering to tell him to stop when, suddenly, the boy did. And he was about to thank Merlin for that when just as quickly, he continued with his back, giving it pretty much the same treatment.

"You're tense professor." Harry said applying just the right pressure on his shoulders and behind his neck.

"Yes, I am!" Snape snaped. "And you shouldn't know that because you shouldn't be giving me a massage, you should be just bathing me! With a sponge not with your bare hands!" He yelled startling the boy. "You know what those are? Sponges?"

"Yes I do!" Harry yelled back.

"Good, then use one."

"I don't have one!"

"You- you what? Oh, I see. Because you donated all your money for war reparations, right? That's why you can't buy a sponge?" Snape said laughing without humor.

"Well... may-be that's correct, what do you know? And besides, I wash myself just fine with this hands, I'm sure they can get the job done on you too!"

"Fine! Do as you please then!" 'Although touching your teacher's naked body with your bare hands shouldn't please you.' Snape thought but restrained to say so.

"I will!"

"Weird kid." Snape said more to himself.

"I heard that Snape." Harry commented but without anger.

They spended the rest of the bath pretty much on silence after that, except for Snape's furious: "Enough!" When the boy attempted to go downwards past his waist with his hands and the soap.

The whole situation had been uncomfortable but the cherry of the pie came when, after drying him and dressing him on a clean and fresh dark green tunic, Harry told him in a quiet, almost shy voice: "You don't disgust me Snape. And I don't find you repulsive at all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did you like it? :D I really hope you did and tell me what you think of it. Thanks for reading this guys :)


	4. Learning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened in the war and after? How did he ended up there, under his former student care? Snape interrogates Harry hoping some truths slip through his lies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D here's another chapter. 
> 
> Again, so sorry for the grammatical errors, I do my best to correct them but a few (or actually a lot) slip by. 
> 
> Oh, important announcement! Some details of the story are according to the books, others according to the movies. Most of them are really small differences but on I choose to follow one or the other depending on what works best in this story.
> 
> That being said, enjoy the chapter :D

After their little momentum on the bathroom, which Snape would rather forget, the atmosfear between them was... awkward, to say the least. But he'll be damn if he would let that interfere in his search for answers.

As soon as he find himself back in the room, dressed in pretty much decent clothes and with a chair to sit on on his own, Snape felt some of his confidence return. How could he let a kid... well, not really a kid, after all Potter had to be around his 38s if his calculations were correct, but still, how could he let him make him feel so embarrassed? 

He blamed those eyes. He had never been able to resist Lily's eyes, no since the moment they meet. They had always have the power to make him feel expose, naked to his very core, as if they could see deep into his soul. Of course, when it came to Harry, the resemblance with James had been so strong that he could almost forget the boy had her mother's eyes. But no in that little... spa session, as he call it. In there he felt them burn holes into his skin like they never did before. But why would he...? 'Well...' Snape reminded himself, 'You will understand everything if you can just see past it and focus on pushing the boy for answers.' So some questions were in order then.

Sitting in front of Harry, who had brought another chair for himself and placed some food in the little table by the bed for Snape to eat, he decided to start with:

"Even in that thick head of yours you can't posible have harbored the idea that I would settle for half truths and incomplete answers or no answers at all." So maybe it wasn't the best start, he realized, but it would have to do.

"No, professor, I figured you wouldn't." Harry said after a couple of seconds in which he was deciding whether to accede to the interrogatory to come or not. "So ask your questions and I will answer."

'Finally' Snape thought. After Harry's monumental lie about the miraculous potion that had saved his life, he knew he couldn't trust a single word that came out of the boy's mouth, although the amount of years that had pass since that night seemed accurate, but there was truth that could be read into every lie. He knew that very well.

There was something in the way he was saved from death that Potter couldn't reveal. Possible because he had found a forbidden way to do it, Snape figured. Having sneaked out, in the middle of the night to enter the forbidden section of the library on his first year in Hogwarts, the theory was most likely. So yes, Potter was lying, but he was revealing lot ot the truth truth doing it.

"Very well. I'll ask and I shall expect full and honest answers." Snape said trying to keep the distrust he felt out off his features to avoid disencouraging the man in front of him to respond. "Tell me, what happened after, according to what you said, Miss Granger administrated me the potion?"

It took Harry a couple of seconds more to answer for he was carefully thinking what to say and how to say it.

"Well, after... that, we took you to a safe place and then the three of us returned to Hogwarts. Once I was there I went to Dumbledore's Pensive and deposited your tears-"

"They weren't...!" Snape interrupted him, heat raising to his cheeks. However, quickly realizing it was more important to just let Potter finish the story, he stopped himself from argumenting further. "Never mind. Go on." He said and suddenly it was Harry's turn to blush. 

"Well... then, I... I saw your memories sir." He shyly continued, remembering all too well the things he had learned of the man, of his 'hateful' teacher, through those memories. 

How he had loved his mother, and more than that, be devoted to her until his last moment. How he had risked his own life dayly to save his, never receiving so much as a 'thank you' for it. How he had come to care for him. And not because he was supposed to be the one who save the Wizarding World but because... well, he didn't really knew why, but his former teacher had grew to care for him just because he was him, Harry. Not the boy who lived. Just Harry.

"Carry on, Potter." Snape pressed, bringing him from his thoughts.

"Yes, sorry." He said. "So, when I found out I was his last horcrux and that Voldemort himself had to kill me in order to destroy it, I went to the Dark Forest to meet with him and let him do it."

"You... died?" Said Snape more to himself than to Harry. 

He hadn't wish that fate for the boy. He understood when Dumbledore explained to him why it what necessary, that it had to happen. He had even imagined when he woke up alive with the war against the Dark Lord clearly won, that Potter must have had to died in order to defeat him. However, deep inside of him he had hoped that they had found another way to accomplish that, for even if the boy was now alive, he knew no one returned from the death the same.

Noticing Snape frowning, when in his school years he would have believed him to be mad or disappointed of him, now Harry saw the man's expression for what it was. Concern. His former teacher was concerned about him. It made him feel happy.

"It wasn't so bad sir." Harry said in a soft reassuring voice. "I saw professor Dumbledore when it happened and he told me I had to choose, whether to move on to the afterlife or go back. But I couldn't just leave everything as it was. Voldemort was still alive, weak but alive. And so was Nagini."

Her name made Snape's expression harden.

"Nagini, was another horcrux." He remarked with venom. "What happened to her?"

"Neville killed her." 

"Mr Longbottom. Really?"

"Yes, Snape, really." Harry answered with a proud smile. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't..."

"What?" Snape questioned him, curious at why he suddenly stopped talking.

"Actually... if it wasn't for you I would have never defeated him sir."

"Potter..." He said in a warning tone, knowing precisely where the boy was heading with that.

"I never thanked you professor, for anything..."

'And there he goes.' Snape thought. "Drop the subject." He said sternly but Potter just went on.

"Not once, for the many times you saved my life risking your own."

"Potter..."

"I told myself that I didn't knew, not until the end. But the truth is that I did. I did knew." Harry said, his face doing little to conceal the guilt he felt. "Ever since I found out on my first year in Hogwarts that you weren't trying to threw me off my broom during that quidditch game but you were actually trying to save me I-"

"You thought I was trying to kill you?!" Snape asked feeling somehow indignation, although he admitted he had never give the boy much reason to think better of him. But still.

"I'm so sorry professor, it was wrong of me to assume always the worst when it came to you."

"That's fine. I did little to lead you to a different conclusion." Snape said, remaining himself he was supposed to put an end to the matter.

"But- but that's not true!"

"Potter..." Came his warning tone once more. Maybe it would surt some effect this time.

"You did plenty!" No such luck then, he figured as Potter went on. "On my third year, when professor Lupin turned into a werewolf, you put yourself between him and us to protect me and my friends. Even though I had just attacked you in the Shrieking Shack."

"An expelliarmus is hardly an attack so-"

"But I casted it against you, when all you did was trying to keep Sirius from killing me."

"Black wasn't going to kill you." 'An end Snape, put an end!' He cursed himself.

"But you didn't know that! You thought that was what he wanted and you confronted him. And you confronted professor Lupin too. Two wizards you thought to be dark. On your own."

"Yes Mr Potter, my memory is still functional so this... synthesis of event is really not-"

"And then, when he returned... you went to him." Harry interrupted him but went suddenly silent and, for a few moments, seemed to stay lost in thoughts. 

Snape was tempted to demand to know the meaning of those words but he didn’t need to, for the boy finally continued:

"You continued to spy for the Order. Pretending to be his loyal servant but keeping me out of his reach. Even in my mind."

"Stop it Potter."

"Even when I showed you so little... trust and respect sir."

"Well, start now then and-"

"I'm sorry I pried into your memories that time Snape."

"Potter-"

"I mean, I'm not sorry I saw what I saw. It helped me see my father for what he was so I could at least understand that your resentment towards him wasn't unfunded. What I mean is that I'm sorry I saw that without your consentment."

"As if I would ever give you my consent to pried into my life." Snape replied almost by instinct, not thinking his remark would lead them right to the subject he had tried to avoid from the start.

"But you did sir." Harry said calmly, almost shily. "When you asked me to take your tears."

"They weren't-!" He almost argued but decided against it, thinking maybe when it came to this... adult Harry Potter, the civilized way would do more effect. "Never mind. I wish you would drop this matter, rather now, if possible." Snape said trying to sound composed.

Harry understood then that the subject was making the man uncomfortable. Either that or was bringing to his mind very painful memories. Whatever the case may be, he had no intentions to cause him more suffer. His former professor had have enough of that for a lifetime. Sort of speaking.

"I'm sorry, professor. Consider the matter drop." Harry said decided to lighten the mood. "Would you like to eat now?"

Snape saw the boy point to a now cold white rice and chicken on a cooking pot that laid forgotten on the table by the bed.

"I can go warm that up and be right back on a second." Harry said getting up from the chair. "I wish I could offer you a more... tempting meal but this will be your first meal since the ‘98, so it should be something light, I figure."

His first meal in twenty years. Snape knew he should be starving. But he was not.

"I'm not hungry Potter. Sit." He said pointing with his head to the chair from which Harry had just got up. "We are not nearly done here. I still have many questions to ask you."

"I... suppose it’s fine but, sir, you have to eat something at some point." Harry said with concern returning to his previous spot in front of him.

"I will, in due time. That is when or if your so called light meal can arouse my appetite." He reply with a scowl, surprised when all his bitter remark did, was make the boy smile.

"Sounds fair. So ask me."

"So Mr Longbottom killed the last horcrux and you killed the Dark Lord, is that correct?"

"It is."

"And you said Hogwarts was destroyed so I assume that's where the battle took place."

"Yes. After he killed me in the Dark Forest, he went to the school to recruit more followers. He carried my body with him, so no one would question his power. Of course, even without knowing I was alive there were those who refused to bow to him."

"Draco?" Snape said, his question implied in his former student’s name alone.

He saw Potter frown then and feared the worst. For all the things the child may be, dark in heart was not one of them. His family and circumstances may had lead him to the obscure side but he had truly hoped that he could find his way out of that path somehow.

"Draco... well he didn't really had a choice, you know? His mother and father were with Voldemort and when they called him... well, he went with them. I can't really blame him, I suppose."

Harry thought that it would please Snape to know the grudge between them was somehow overpassed but when the lines on the man's frown only grew deeper, he understood what the other must been thinking and so he rushed to say:

"Oh but he's alive!"

"He is?" Snape asked just to be sure but already feeling relieved.

"Yes, he didn't stay to fight." Harry said with half a smile clearly remembering. "You know? I have to say, I think it was fifty percent cowardice. The reason why he ran off from the battle field like he did. But yeah, the other fifty I believe it was the good in him telling him not to fight on Voldemort's side."

"That sounds like him."

"Yes, I suppose."

"Were there many casualties?" Snape finally asked watching the boy's face drop the smile instantly and lose his normal rosen color.

"There were." He said and didn't wait to be questioned further. "Fifty five died fighting him and his army that day. Among them, professor Lupin and his wife, Tonks, and Fred Weasley."

"I'm sorry, Potter." Said Snape, surprising the boy and even himself with the sincerity of his tone. "I know you were very fond of them."

"I was. But they have been honored." Harry assured with a proud although deeply sad smile. "They all were. And the surviving Death Eaters, punished. Most of them in Azkaban."

"Most?"

"Yes, some escaped and... well, after twenty years is only getting harder to catch them."

"What about you?" Snape said raising an eyebrow.

"What about me?" Asked Harry confused.

"I assume after the war you returned to Hogwarts to finish your studies and become an auror soon after. How come the great savior of the Wizarding World and now auror Harry Potter, is here babysitting his old hated professor of potions, instead of out there, hunting the remaining dark wizards?"

The Harry he knew, the boy, would have give him a nasty look, a defiant glare, at that comment. But that was not what the man in front of him did. The grown up Harry just smiled, amused obviously, and if Snape didn't knew better, he would said that even with fondness, before finally say:

"You got one thing right there Snape. I did returned to Hogwarts and finished my studies. However, I didn't become an auror."

"What?" He asked truly bewildered, which only made his former student's smile grew.

"Well I have been fighting dark wizards since I was 11. It felt about time to change the course of my life. Starting with being grateful I still have one and honoring my parents sacrifice by living it."

"I see." Snape reply with a knowing distasteful smile. "So you just dedicated your so precious life to do... what? Lazing around?"

"No. I write."

"Hmm. Same thing."

"Hey! Being a writer is a true profession." Harry replied feeling a little offended but still not being able to get mad at the man in front of him.

"Do you make money of it?" Snape asked with skepticism.

"Well... not-"

"Imagine my surprise."

"Not - yet! But anyway, that's not why I write. I write to..."

"Yes?"

"Never mind. Is my turn to ask you to drop the matter." Harry said in a more serious tone. "Besides, that about me becoming an auror is not the only thing you got wrong, you know?"

"Is not? Enlighten me then."

"You said I'm babysitting my old hated professor of potions."

"So?"

"First of all. You're not old Snape."

"Excuse me?" Of all the things he had imagine the boy to argue about from that statement, his age was certainly not one of them.

"You're only 38."

"I was 38 in 1998. I’m 58 now."

"Well, technically yes. But didn't you heard me say you haven't aged a day?"

"Of course I did Potter, I'm not deaf!" He said losing his nerves. How could this be the matter they were discussing when there was plenty of more important ones before them?

"And I'm sure you're not bad in mathematics either." The boy continued.

"What? What does my skills in that area have to do with anything?"

"That sir, surely you made the maths."

"Potter, I have no patience for-"

"I'm 38 as well." Harry simply said with a slight slight smile and in the next few seconds that followed, Snape's mind went crazy trying to decipher the meaning behind the remark that they were now the same age.

"Oh I see." He finally said. "I'm guessing you don't think you owe me some resemblance of respect now that we're the same age."

"What?" 

"But let me tell you..." He continued paying no attention to Harry's hurt expression. "I'm still and will always be your former teacher so-"

"No, what? Snape, hold on." The boy interrupted him raising his hands for emphasis. "Would you please stop thinking always the worst of me, sir? That's not why I say that at all."

"Is not?" Came Snape distrustful tone.

"No. I only meant to say that if I ever thought of you as my old professor, which I did not, I for sure don't think of you in that way now that we're both the same age."

"Oh. I... have nothing to comment to that." He say truly lost at words. Why did Potter feel the need to clarify that he didn't thought of him as old? Was that relevant for some reason?

"And, regarding to the other thing you got wrong..."

'What now?' Snape though, specting by then another extrange open heart revelation.

"Like I told you." Harry said with a rare expression, once that could only mean he was trying to conceal his true one. "I don't... hate you Snape."

"You certainly did before." Snape answered, remembering all too well years of reciprocal hard feelings between them.

"Certainly. When I thought you hated my father for no reason and myself by extension. When I saw you kill professor Dumbledore and didn't knew he had asked you- no, almost forced you to do it."

Snape understood everything then. He had been right before, in thinking this sudden... fondness towards him, this change in the boy's attitude towards him was due to pity.

Potter had saw his memories once against his will on their Occlumency lessons. He saw his father and friends mock him, make a fool of him. Knowing the boy as he came to know him over the years, like the righteous always a defender of the weak, that he was, of course that would make him pity him. But even if that didn't do it, there were also the memories he had willingly given to him, when he thought he would died. In those, Potter had seen a man so in love with a woman that he was ready to give his life for her and even for the family she had formed away from him. Yes, at his eyes, it was for sure reason enough for pity him. But Snape have never welcomed that feeling.  
He was just opening his mouth to say so, but Harry was faster.

"No, Snape." The boy said looking him straight in the eyes with concern. "I know what you're about to say but don't. Don't twist this into something is not. I just... I just came to-"

"Came to what?!" Snape practically barked. "To feel sorry for the poor lonely Snivellus as your self righteous father and his moron friends used to call me."

"What?! No!"

"Please Potter, spare me whatever sentiment you-"

"Stop it professor, that's not what I was about to say."

"Is not? Then by all means, say what you must already, I'm getting- sorry, we're getting older here!"

"I was going to say that after all those years of doubting of you, of doubting of your intentions, you're true loyalty, I came to understand your actions and all you did for me, even when I was nothing but resentful towards you and- and a petulant child!" Harry spat with anger but Snape could see it was aimed to himself and not to him. 

"Potter..."

"No! Listen to me, please." 

And so Snape decided to do it. Better let the boy get it out of his chest and be done with it. "I'm listening."

"I... didn't deserved what you did for me. You risking your life to save mine and I... I always reserved my gratitude for professor Dumbledore or Remus or Sirius, never..."

'Oh, so it was guilt after all, wasn't it? Snape though, still not pleased but less angered.

"But it was you, all those years. I didn't deserved that."

"You say that already."

"Well is the true."

Snape took a moment to observe the man in front of him. Yes. Definitely guilt. But also something more beneath it. And what could that be?

"Is that why I'm here?" He asked in the most calm understanding tone he could manage.

The question however, took the boy by surprise and the words seemed to stuck in his throat.

"Wh- what?"

"You told me you gave me a potion to stop the bleeding and Nagini's poison from dispersing through my system."

"Y- yes."

"And you said it took you twenty years to discover the antidote."

"Well, not me me. I suck in potions, as I'm sure you remember." 

"So it took other people years of research to find it. Am I right?"

"Y- yes, professor." Harry stammered, clearly nervous.

"Then that takes me back to my previous question. Why am I here Potter? Why under your care, in your house and not in Saint Mungo's?"

There was a long moment of silence and Snape thought that the boy may never answer. But finally, he did.

"Because I requested it so." Harry said lowering his eyes, which could mean he was either terribly embarrassed or blatantly lying. "I requested they let me take you under my care."

"Why would you do that?" Snape asked truly at lost.

"Because..." The boy answered taking a deep breath and finally looking him in the eyes. "It was either me or the dementors."

Now it was his turn to take a deep breath because, of course, how could he have been so blind? When before, Potter said all the surviving Death Eaters faced justice, that had included him. There had probably been a trial against him. He just had missed it.

"I see." Snape said with a dreadful tone he was unable to conceal. "I suppose is no surprise, all things considered..."

"No surprise?!" Harry interrupted him raising his voice without meaning to. "It's ridiculous, that's what it is! You... you-"

"I what Mr Potter?!"

"Everything you did you did to help defeating him! I-"

"Then why didn't you showed them?" Snape said losing his temper, tired of the boy pretending to care for him so much. "Through my memories, why didn't you showed them where my true loyalty lied all along?" 

Merlin knew he would happily go to Azkaban if that meant not having the Ministry seeing his most private memories and the whole Wizarding World knowing about his one sided love for Lily Potter and how he had crawled to Dumbledore's feets for help in order to save her. No, he didn't want that at all but all he suddenly wanted, for some reason beyond his comprehension, was to know what the boy in front of him had done to try to save him. How far had he go?

"I- I did showed them sir!" Harry said for his mortification, fueling his anger. "But the Ministry refused to believe. They said a powerful wizard such as yourself, could have easily adulterated his own memories in order to avoid going to Azkaban."

"Dear god Potter, you're an imbecile!" Snape yelled with fury leaving a very startled, very confused, Harry Potter gaping. "Close that mouth unless you intend to use it." He said bitterly reaching a hand towards Harry's chin and pushing the lower maxilar up. 

Having half expected the boy to pull himself out of reach at seeing his hand coming, it was his turn to be surprised when not only Harry didn't pulled away but instead he blushed.

"What is wrong with you Potter?" Said Snape instantly letting go of his chin.

"No- nothing professor. Why you... why you ask?" Harry nervously babbled.

"Well, first, the babbling is back, and second, you keep blushing like a schoolgirl every five or six minutes!"

"Wh- what? Sorry, what?!"

"You do! Do you have a fever or something of the sort? Are you ill?" Snape asked and Harry could swore it was worry behind that apparently angry tone.

"I'm not." He said trying to conceal the smile that threatened to show on his face.

"I suppose you wouldn't tell me if you were or you would invent some creative story for me to... what was that muggle expression? Buy?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Just tell me, what is my situation then? A few days here to recover and then... Azkaban? Perhaps?" He said trying to hide the apprehension he felt for the mere idea.

"No! You can stay here." Harry said with a contempt smile.

Snape considered his words for a few seconds before saying:

"Can or have to?"

Harry seemed to be considering his own as well as he and after a few seconds, said:

"Have to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, did you like it? I hope you guys tell me what you think of the story this far, where do you think is going and just everything that comes to your mind, I really enjoy that :)


	5. Remembering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape has another revealing dream, or are those memories? He needs to find out what really happened since the night of Nagini's attack but Harry wouldn't talk, his body however, is a different story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm so so sorry for the delay. again ^_^` I had a lot going on on college and som family problems but it's all good. Just want you to know that I never abandon a history, so even if a month or two (or more) goes by, I would definetly keep writing until it's over.  
> As always, sorry about my poor english. Oh, and "this" is for dialogue and 'this' for thoughts.  
> That being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

He could hear him sobbing.  
He didn't need to open his eyes to know it was him but he was curious. What was wrong with the boy now? It was the middle of the night for Merlin's sake.

The bathroom light was on and he recognized the sound of the bathtub being filled. So he stopped at the closed door, not wanting to walk in a nude Harry Potter, placed his ear against it and that's when he heard it. That something was being said between sobs and gasping. The boy was mumbling:

"I'm sorry... so sorry." Like a mantra. And then... "It took me so long, too long, I... I'm so sorry."

Somehow Snape knew that those words were directed to him but he never had the time to try to comprehend them because, suddenly, he felt cold starting to spread through his body.  
It spread from his legs, arms and lower back all the way to his neck. It was frightening. Out of the blue he felt naked, exposed and cold, so cold. And something else. Was that... dirt?   
He could feel something like mud between his toes and fingers, under his nails, even on his ears and scalp. So he looked down, expecting to see himself covered on it, but he saw nothing of the sort. Instead, the mud was all over the wooden floor and carpet, in a trail that went from the bedroom's door to the bathroom.

That couldn't be a good sign, Snape realized, and without a second though he opened the door in front of him.

"I'm so sorry. This is all my fault I... I should have done everything different... I'm sorry." Harry was saying but...not to him?

The boy was on his knees on the tiled floor, all wet, covered in mud, leaning over the bathtub and... was there... a person inside?   
Snape couldn't quite see, with the boy's back to him, his shoulders blocking the view. So he slowly stepped closer.

He didn't knew why he wasn't announcing his presence like he should have, or why he wasn't asking what the bloody hell was going on like he wanted to. Maybe it was Harry's desperate sobs, or his constant pleading for forgiveness and the knowledge that anything he may say or ask would go unnoticed, considering the trance Potter seemed to be into. But maybe it was another reason entirely.  
Maybe the true reason was the fact that he already knew what was going on because he actually did knew who was the third person in the room with them. Only there wasn't a third person at all.

"No..." He said as he saw his lifeless body on the bathtub. "What have you done Potter?" A voice, his own voice, asked, but just like when he dreamed himself and the boy in the dark forest, he wasn't quite controlling it. And again, just like that time, the broken boy before him, answered.

"Not enough, professor. I haven't done enough." Harry said without looking up, as he leaned a little bit more over the porcelain edge.

The boy had undressed him,leaving the dirty clothes piled up next to the door, placed him inside the bathtub, filled it with water and was now starting to clean his body.  
Snape knew that had the circumstances be different, he would be completely mortified, and furious, to say the least. But then again, had the circumstances be different, why would he be naked in front of a student? Ex-estudent really, but still, none of that mattered to him then. Modesty could be damn, he was dead, Snape realized.

That body lying on the bathtub, his own body, had clearly been buried, if the dirt was something to go by. It was dead, a corpse, nothing more. It couldn't be more if he himse, what he was guessing was a soul, was standing right there out of it. And yet he could swear he saw that apparently dead chest rising and falling as if it breathed.

'No. It's just a corpse.' Snape repeated to himself trying to make peace with the idea.

It wasn't as if he couldn't accept that he had died, Merlin knew he hadn't expected to live as long as he did anyway. But what he really was having trouble accepting was the idea of still being there. No eternal nothingness as he had expected if he was lucky, no seeing his mother again neither, as he had truly but secretly wished. Nothing of the sort. Instead he was there, stuck in a dirty little bathroom with Harry Potter.   
Why was he even there? Was this a memory or a dream? And what about the days he spended in the boy's care? Have those been a dream too?

Snape was so deep in his thoughts that, for a moment, he forgot completely about the scene displaying in front of him and so, when the touch came, it caught him out of gard. It was so gently, and maybe precisely for that reason, so foreign to him, that startled him, made him immediately focus once more in the young man in front of him. Harry was moving his right hand over his chest, well, over his corpse's chest really, but he could feel it just as clearly and strongly as if it were directly over him and it was... disturbing, he told himself.  
The hand was going from his left clavicle, down to the middle of his abdomen, and then up again, fingers tracing his his skin, nails occasionally grazing his nipples, first one and then the other, as the boy moved his palm from one side of his chest to the other, never breaking the contact. It was becoming... inconfortable. Making him feel... whatever it was that was making him, didn't mattered, it had to stop.

"Potter!" Snape grunted, and why did his voice came out ragged? Nevertheless, the boy stopped.

But he didn't just stopped, he froze. Harry didn't looked up, nor did he turned around. He seemed,however, to be struggling with some sort of emotion, if he took the noticeable shaking of his body as a sign.  
The boy opened and closed his mouth a few times before he finally said:

"What are you doing there Snape?" 

Again, he found himself caught out of guard because what kind of question was that?!

"Me?!" Snape said losing his temper. "What are you doing there with-?

"You?" Harry interrupted him, finishing the sentence as he finally turned his head around to look him in the eyes.

He seemed broken like Snape had never seen him before. No when Cedric Diggory died, no when Dumbledore died. In those occasions, he hadn't stay around long, but enough. Enough to see the boy, his face, his eyes, and they held so much... sadness, yes, but also rage, along with fear, especially after that student's death. His eyes had held so much emotion back then, maybe too many emotions even, but now... now they held nothing at all.   
Even dead, Snape wasn't about to admit it, not even to himself, but seeing him like that was breaking his heart.

"That's not me, Potter." He said softening his tone. The boy was in a bad shape already, no need to make things worst. "It's just a body, a... dead body to be precise."

"Dead?" Harry asked as if he felt offended by the idea. "Professor, he's pretty much alive."

Only at hearing those words, did Snape forced himself to see, really see, his own body lying on the bathtub. And the form was barely, almost imperceptibly, but undeniable moving. It was breathing.

"What have you done?" Snape asked without meaning to, for the second time that night. "What is the meaning of this? What is... that?!" He said raising his voice once more.

"He..." Harry answered emphasizing the word. "...it's you, Sir."

"I'm-right-here, Potter!" The older man yelled. "I don't know what you've done or why, but that's just some sort of... experimental creature, or something of the sort you must have stupidly made. That's not me!"

"Oh you really think that?" The boy said clearly angry now.

"I do!" Snape answered equally furious.

"Look!" Harry yelled pointing to the big nasty scar on the laying body's neck, left there by Nagini. "Don't you recognize your own body?! Oh, and look!" The boy said tracing with his fingers a smaller scar at the centre of his chest, left there by a person, a monster really, he used to call father. "I didn't knew about this one, about any of those actually, until tonight. So how could I have... made this body, as you put it?"

"You... you must have..." Snape tried to answer but couldn't. He couldn't came up with an explanation for what was happening.

"Why?" The boy continued as he rose to his feets and approached his formed teacher. "Why are you acting as if you didn't know what is going on here Snape? You damn well know what I've done!"

~~~~

Snape woke up startled, his upper body rising from the bed on its own volition.

'It was just a dream, it had to be.' He repeated to himself closing his eyes tight and almost believed it until he heard Potter say:

"It was." As two strong hands pressed him back down on the mattress. "Just a dream, professor. Nothing more." 

Snape knew the boy was trying to reassure him but he was only making things worst. 

Again, Potter seemed to be able to read his thoughts and... why the bloody hell was the boy so touchy lately?! Snape's body was already plastered on the mattress and yet the boy wasn't lifting his hands from his chest. He wanted to yell him to keep them to himself but he didn't.  
He thought the situation better and realized his eyes were still closed and he wasn't moving. He could definitely make the boy believe he was still asleep and see what he would do. What he would say. Sure he would rather interrogate him about the events of that supposed dream he just had, but what good would that do? Potter wouldn't talk, or worst, he would lie.  
So he slowed his breathing and forced his mind remind silent, if the boy could somehow read his thoughts they would for sure give him away. And so he waited.

A few minutes passed before Harry lifted both hands from his chest and left, walked to the bathroom, if he was hearing right, and returned. Then Snape felt the distinctly feeling of a wet cloth being pressed to his forehead, first, then to his cheeks in turns, then to his neck and collarbone.

"They're just... nightmares Snape, nothing to be concerned about. I told you everything you need to know. Can't you just let the past go?" Harry said softly as he cleaned more sweated skin.

He carefully opened a few buttons of the man's black tunic and started cleaning his chest.

"Hmm... I need better access. Should I undress you professor?" Harry asked in a playful tone and Snape couldn't stop his mind from thinking 'What?!' As uneasiness filled his whole body.   
Then, suddenly, the boy started laughing and said: "Would you stop pretending to be asleep then?"

'He knew all along.' A very pissed off Snape thought, opening his eyes to find the smiling young man staring back at him.

"I don't appreciate being laugh at, Mr Potter." He said without humor.

"Sorry, Snape. I'll try to remember that the next time you pretend to be asleep to have me taking care of you."

"That wasn't-"

"Look who's blushing like a schoolgirl now." Harry said laughing even more.

"What did I just say?!" Snape grunted.

"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry."

'Not as sorry as you would be were I still in position to assign you a detention.' The older man thought.

Harry chuckled and that was it!

"I don't appreciate you entering my mind without permission either!" Snape yelled losing his temper.

"Wh-what?" Harry stammered caught out off guard for both the professor's angry accusation and his sudden attempt of getting off the bed.

"You heard me." Snape said trying to stand in his feets. "Get-out-of my head!"

"Snape I'm not... in your head, as you say it. I haven't- how could I anyway? I can't even use magic! And- and would you please just let me help you?" Harry rushed to say, not waiting for permission to do just that.

He extended his arms under the professor's shaky ones and grabbed him from the waist. That gained him a glare from his former professor but no further protest.

"Where are you even trying to go?" Harry asked.

Snape seemed to be considering his options until he finally said:

"I don't have a particular place in mind. Just far away from you should suffice for the moment."

"What?!" The boy practically yelled dropping his arms, forgetting they were where they were for a reason.

Luckily, Snape was already in conditions to support his own weight and was able to remain on his feets.

"You lied to me." He said once again in a growl.

"I- I have no idea what-"

"Don't. This little game of yours is an insult to both my intelligence and whatever little integrity you have. That is assuming you even have such thing to start with."

"Look who's insulting who now professor." Harry replied a little offended but mostly just trying to direct the man's attention on a different direction.

"If I'm insulting you, Mr Potter, is only because I'm on my right to do so. You- lied- to me."

"Well, since a minute ago you seemed to be in the mood of telling me what you don't appreciate, let me tell you this..." Harry said defiant as ever. "I don't appreciate being called a liar Snape."

The older man, however, wasn't about to feel intimidated by his attitude.

"Then perhaps, Mr Potter, you should stop giving me reasons to call you so and start telling the truth for a change." Snape said stepping closer, much too closer than what Harry founded himself comfortable with.  
He was already a man, he knew that, and yet Snape still had the ability to make him feel like a freshman eleven years old boy in Hogwarts not paying attention in class. And at the same time, not a boy at all.

"You seem nervous, I wonder why." His former professor said, lowering his gaze towards his throat. Probably noticing that he was having trouble swallowing, Harry thought.

"Wh- why do you think I- I lied?" He stammered again pathetically even to his own ears.

"You are mistaken Mr Potter." And at least now Snape was looking at him in the eyes rather that at his working throat. "I don't think you're lying. I know you are."

"F-fine... then how do you know?"

"Well, even if I were so blind and even deaf as to ignore every single sign your own body is giving me..." The older man said stepping even closer and was it just him or the room was getting warmer. "... It's just your face." Snape finished.

It took Harry a moment to process what he said and even longer to understand why he said it but, could it really be what he thought it was? He needed to know.

~~~~

The boy's face lost his crimson color and was in the process of turning white when he asked:

"Why did you say that?"

Snape look at him confused and could only answer with another question.

"Why did I say what Mr Potter?"

"That is just my face. What is just my face?"

"The heat you're feeling, obviously. It isn't the room, it's just your face turning red, no doubt of embarrassment for being caught." He said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He had him, he was certain.

"I didn't say anything about feeling heat, or about the room having anything to do with it, Snape."

"Potter..." He said, counting to ten to try to calm himself. "I'm getting tired of your riddles to divert my attention from the main subject here."

"I'm not talking in riddles, I'm trying to point at something that has very much to do with the main subject, professor."

"And that is?" Snape asked unfolding his arms. He was finally getting somewhere. 

The boy wanted to confess something. He could read it on his face as if it were an open book and in big capital letters were written the word 'guilt'.

"Snape, I..." Harry said with a trembling voice.

"Yes?"

"You're right... I lied."

'Finally.' The older man thought. "Care to tell me what really happened then?"

His former student took a deep breath, opened and closed his mouth a couple of times but at the end he look down and walked away.

"Potter!" Snape growled more angry than ever since he woke up.

"I'm sorry Snape." Harry said walking towards the door. "I can't help you if you don't remember."

'You damn well know what I've done!' Came the memory of the words spoken by the boy on his dream.

But he didn't. He didn't know what the brat had done for him to be alive after Nagini's attack. Or did he? In any case, even if he did it was clear that he wasn't close to remember it. The boy was his best source at the moment. And he was walking away.

"Wait!" Snape said turning around fast and catching his former student's arm in an iron grip.

Harry gasped in surprise but didn't tried to free himself. If anything, after the first few seconds, the older man could swear the boy was leaning into the contact.

"Let me go Snape." Harry said and now even his voice showed no true interest in that to happen.

"Is that what you really want, Mr Potter?" Snape asked stepping closer. "Because I believe there's something that's been eating your good Gryffindor's heart. Something you wish to confess to me now."

"Snape..." 

"What is it Potter? What did you do?"

Harry's eyes begun to fill with tears and Snape knew he was about to break. He just needed to push harder.

"I know you didn't spend all this twenty years searching for an antidote to Nagini's poison because that antidote already exist." At hearing his words, Harry looked at him with imposible wide eyes. He could even see the boy tensing then but he carried on nevertheless. "I brew the potion myself the night Arthur Weasley was bitten. It saved his life as it would have saved mine where Dumbledore or the Weasleys been around."

"You knew all this time." Harry whispered looking down.

"In deed." Snape answered trying not to sound angry. "What I don't know is what truly happened." 'And why would you compulsively lie to me about it.' He thought bitterly.

"I never wanted to lie to you, professor." Harry shyly said but the incredulous look he saw in his former teacher made him rephrase. "Well, I- I mean ever since I found out where you true loyalty was placed that is. Not that I wanted to lie to you before that, it was more like I felt the necessity to do so, be- because I thought you were, well... you know what I mean?"

"I most certainly do not." Snape said taking a deep breath as he let go of the young men's arm.

"Snape..." Came Harry's pleading voice as he placed his own hand in the older man's arm."... what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I lied."

Snape wanted nothing more than slap the brat's hand away but he settled with saying:  
"If you're done with your sentimentalism, Mr Potter, I would like for you to start answering my question now."

His comment seemed to have the desired effect for as soon as he finished, Harry retrieved his hand.

"You knew this Snape." He finally said.

"I know that I knew what I need now is to know again!" He growled infureated.

"It didn't occurred to you that if you forgot there must be a good reason?" Harry growled back.

"What?!"

The boy opened his mouth to answer but right in that moment someone knocked at the door. Only then did Snape took in his surroundings. 

The room was the same he remembered having woke up the first time but it was darker. No doubt it was the middle of the night.

"Who could possibly be at this hour, Potter?" Snape said getting even angrier for the interruption.

"Someone who doesn't appreciate to be left standing outside for long, I can tell you that." Harry rushed to answer as he placed both hands at Snape's shoulders and tried to direct him towards the bed.

"What do you think you're doing? Keep your hands to yourself Potter!" He snapped at the clearly nervous boy.

"Snape, look, I have to answer the door, would you please go back to bed?"

"Why? Why can't I go down and welcome our guest?" He said defiant. "You made very clear that I am a prisoner here, in your very… very humble home, but I was never told I was a secret prisoner."

"What? You- you're not a secret Snape, what gave you that idea?" Harry laughed now even more nervously.

"You. Right this instant."

"Fine. So maybe I'm keeping the fact that you're staying here a secret for... some people."

"What people and why?" Snape asked with severity crossing his arms in front of his chest for the second time that night.

The knock on the outside door came more insistent this time.

"Snape please! Would you just-?"

"Just what? Hide in here so I may not complicate your social life?"

"My what?! You think I can afford a social life when I have to-?" Harry hushed in a way it said he would rather be screaming at Snape, but suddenly came to a halt.

Nevertheless, the older man knew well enough what he had been about to say.

"When you have to take care of your old pitiful potions professor?"

"Would you cut it out already with that? I told you Snape, you're not old!"

The knock came a third time.

"Look, I would rather not go, believe me. But it will be worst if I don't get the door now, so can you please, please go back to bed?"

Snape considered his options for a moment but since he wouldn't obtain anything from relenting the boy longer, he decided he would rather hide there, as pathetic as that sounded, and try to hear what their visitor's business where so late at night.

"Fine, for now, I will remain here." He said sitting on the edge of the bed.

Harry seemed surprised at his change of attitude, but then his face became serious and he said:

"Lay down." 

"I beg your pardon?" Snape asked in confusion.

"Please, I can see you're tired, lay down on the bed Snape."

"I am not... tired." The older man tried to say firmly but suddenly his eyes begun to close.

"It's fine professor." He heard the boy say as he felt a hand pushing him towards the mattress and another one supported his head so the fall wouldn’t be rough. "It's all fine. Just rest a little for now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did you like it? :D I really hope you do and tell me what you think about it, anything will be appreciated :) Thanks so much for reading!


	6. Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape has another strange dream only this time there’s a third person involved. He wants to turn around from the scene and leave but something, or rather someone, seems to have some kind of power over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, don’t know if you remember this story, I would understand if you don’t. I’m really sorry it took me so so long to update :( but if you do remember I hope you keep on reading and that you like what happens on this chapter ^-^ 
> 
> I won't say much more just that remember ‘this’ is for thoughts, and “this” for dialogue, but occasionally or rather often, “this” would also mean thoughts mean for other person to hear. You’ll see what I mean.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! :)

"Snape..." He heard the boy say. 

Why was it that everytime he woke up it was the brat's voice the first thing he heard? It was becoming annoying really, the professor thought.

"S-snape..." Came his call again and he sounded... different, than any other time before. Like agitated or...

"Nngh... Snape..." 'Aroused', Snape realized as he jumped out of bed startled.

What the bloody hell was the meaning of that?! The boy had no business calling his name in such a... wanton manner, if he was hearing the low pitch of his voice and gasped words correctly. What could he possibly be doing?!

Snape gave a quick glance at his surroundings, noticing he was in the same bedroom and it was still dark, and took a tentative step in direction to the door. He had managed to walk a little without help the day before, or actually a little earlier that night, but still, he had expected some difficulties at first, weakened legs, stumblings feets or something of the sort. Yet, none of that happened. If anything he felt as light as a feather as he moved towards the bedroom's door, the only source of light coming from somewhere beyond it.

"Aahh..." He heard the boy gasp. And it was strange. That the boy was nowhere in sight and yet Snape could hear him gasping as loud and clear as if he were doing it right next to his ear. 'Disturbing.' He thought as he exited the bedroom.

Outside there was a hall with doors to three more rooms and a staircase at the end. The light was coming from down there, so Snape follow it.  
The house was small and humble and its log walls and wooden floors, told him it was a cabin rather than an urban house. So wherever they were there was a good chance that 'in the middle of nowhere' applied.  
Downstairs, Snape found himself in a livingroom with rustic furnishing and a stone fireplace, the source of the light he had been following. And near to it, on a large sofa facing the fire, there was the source of those... sounds.

Potter was sitting there, head thrown back in clear pleasure, as a girl moved on top of him, her tights on each side of his. Even though she was fully dressed and he appeared to be so too, Snape didn't need to be a genius to understand what was happening as she undulated her hips up and down on the boy's lap, her dress pulled up conveniently to grant access to certain contact.  
It was barbaric, he thought, taking one angry gigantic step after the other towards them, years of interrupting situacions less severe than this one during his teaching years on Hogwarts, commanding him to pull those reckless kids apart.

As he approached them he noticed the girl being no other than the Weasley girl, Arthur's youngest, he couldn't see her face but that red hair would give her away anytime anywhere, just like Lily's would. He quickly discarded that thought and why the hell was he moving so damn slow?! It was as if he could never cross that bloody small living room to the sofa! And he needed to stop them, he needed to stop Potter. How dared that boy take advantage of a innocent girl like Ginevra?   
Just as that thought hit his mind he reached his destination but what he saw made him stop in his tracks. The Weasley girl had her back to him and her face buried on his lover's neck, but Potter was almost facing him and so Snape was able to see his face.

'Oh, that's right.' He thought suddenly feeling lost. 'He's not a child anymore, neither is she.' They were adults now and no longer his students so he had no place protecting anyone's decency. 

For a moment Snape had forgot, that this was not his time, not his place, not his house nor his classroom, he had no place in this situation and it was all written there, on Potter's face, his sharp lines showing he was now a man, his closed eyes, parted lips and gasps of pleasure, saying he wanted to be there.  
Only in that moment did Snape really thought about the kind of situation he was in and realized that, being no longer a teacher walking in two students doing things reserved for adults with the purpose to stop them, he was just a man spying two adults, former students of his no less, being intimate with each other with no apparent purpose whatsoever. The idea embarrassed him to no end and so he quickly turned around to leave.   
He hadn't even take the first step when he heard:

"Don't go Snape... please" And his blood ran cold.

It was Potter, the brat had saw him and was... talking to him?! In the middle of... what he was doing with the Weasley girl? He had been wrong before, that wasn't barbaric, this was. Or worst, it was madness. Snape knew he should just leave, be gone from that scenario, disappear if possible, and yet his body was slowly turning around.

'Why?!' His mind screamed questioning his own stupidity as he faced the young couple once again.

"Because you don't really want to leave professor." Harry said looking at him right in the eyes and the whole situation became even more bizarre than what already was. "You want to stay here with me Snape... so stay." 

Potter was speaking to him but no word had left his mouth. No, nothing but gasps and soft moans had escaped his lips so the boy must have been speaking in his mind. And yes, he could feel it, that the words were coming from inside his head rather than from the outside. But it was Potter's voice and not his own. The brat was saying:

"Come here S-nape, please..." And even in his thoughts he sounded agitated. The expected consequence of a dizzy mind trying to form complete sentences and failing miserably.

But Snape didn't wanted to think about those things, he wanted to leave because something was so very wrong with the whole situation. It wasn't like Potter, adult or not, to be so shameless. He knew him, the boy would have died of embarrassment but now he was... showing off? And calling him to take a closer look?!

And what about himself? Potter had told him to go to him and he was simply obeying? Yes, something was definitely wrong with himself, he realized that. And yet he couldn't stop.   
Couldn't stop watching the boy in all his display of passion, how he trusted his hips up with force to meet the Weasley girl's movements, the way his hands were in tight fists at her dress, how he threw his head back a little on the sofa but never breaking eye contact with him. And oh, there they were, Lily's eyes, only there was no trace of her kindness and gentleness on them tonight. No, Potter's eyes were glowing with lust, with hunger, and suddenly Snape felt like the prey.   
No one had ever look at him in that way. No one had ever call his name in the way the boy was doing in his mind.

"Snape... S-snape, please..." he could hear him moaning in his head and the older man felt his heart speeding.

'This is- ridiculous.' He told himself as he stood by the sofa, right next to where the couple was.

"Is not. I told you, you want to be here professor, you-"

"Stop!" Snape said speaking for the first time, never mind Ginevra Weasley would hear him. "I don't want this Potter. To see- two of my students like this, to see you..."

"With somebody else?" Harry finished for him but it was a lie, Snape told himself and how could the boy think that? But more important, how could the Weasley girl go on as if their supposedly dead, ex potions professor hadn't just spoken right in the middle of-?

"She can't hear you Snape." Harry said as he let go of Ginny's dress and grabbed her by the waist to hold her still. "So go on... tell me what a liar I am, what a disgrace to my parents and friends, alive and dead, I've become." And now there were tears on the boy's eyes and Snape wondered how. How could they show so much lust and sadness at the same time? But he had more present matters to be concerned for at the moment.

The boy's trusts into the girl were quickly becoming animalistics, growing in speed and force, and the older man could see how it was hurting her as she bit Potter's right shoulder to suppress a yell of pain. 

"Potter enough!" he growled in a warning tone.

"Aahh..." Harry moaned out loud closing his eyes. "Do that again Snape." He told him right after in his mind. "Say my name again professor."

"You are insane P-otter." Snape said knowing he was giving the brat exactly what he wanted, but for the moment that was what was needed. 

He had to put an end to the situation, that was what mattered. And it couldn't possibly be real anyway. Just some weird, sick dream he had no intentions in remembering after. That was all it was.

"So if it is..." Harry said clearly reading his thoughts and Snape cursed himself for forgetting the boy could do that. "What does it matter if you let go? If you give in to pleasure?"

Those words made the older man decide his next course of action and with Potter's dazed eyes following his every step, he circled the sofa and stood right behind the boy. Once there, he leaned over so he could talk right into the brat's ear, and he said:

"How miss Weasley and I even fit in this room with you and your gigantic ego is possibly one of the biggest mysteries of our world." Because yes, the boy's self confidence was becoming annoying and so it would be delightful for him to crush it. Besides, he was curious, did Potter actually enjoyed a sardonic comment and rough tone?

Harry moaned out loud, confirming his theory, and threw his head further back on the sofa, giving Snape an even better access to his ear and now exposed neck. The older man knew then their little game was getting out of proportions. But he went on.

"You really think so highly of yourself as to believe that this... deplorable sight of you could bring me pleasure Potter?" He chuckled. The deep sound making the boy shiver with want. "I think is quite the other way around. You are the one enjoying my presence here, the one enjoying showing me." 

"S-nape... I-"

"You are just showing off, as always and I'm just... tolerating this sick spectacle you're putting on so it may finish soon. So finish Potter."

"Aaahh..." Came Harry's moan as in his mind he repeated Snape's name like a mantra.

And it was obscene. The way the boy was calling for him with need, the noises he was making, how his breathing had become erratic. Snape could tell it would all be over soon because it was obvious even in the most subtle signs, the tremors running through the boy’s body, the way the muscles and tendons of his neck tensed, every little detail. But it was wrong, he shouldn't be paying so close attention to the young man as to notice those things, but he was.   
Now it was him who had no business doing what he was doing. Dream or no dream this was still Potter, or at least a mental representation of him, of his former student, and more important, of Lily's son. Yet here he was, watching him... in a way he had never watch another student before, not even another man before for that matter. And it was... affecting him, the older man realized with horror when he noticed the bulge on his pants.

Right in that instant Potter turned his head towards him and his wide eyes spoke volumes. The brat seemed surprised to found out what effect his little display was having on his potions professor, but not for that less pleased with himself. Quite the contrary really. Now if this were the real Potter, Snape knew he would be dying of mortification. But he wasn't, was he? The whole situation was nothing but a dream, right?

'Right...' He heard the boy say and it was easier than what it should’ve been to gave in.

The older man reached for the front of his trousers and started massaging the hard flesh there through the fabric. It wouldn't be nearly enough but it would have to do, for even if Snape understood this wasn’t real, some part of him still didn't want the boy to see him like that.  
Harry seemed to understand what he was thinking, what he was feeling, and just smiled, softly, tenderly. The gesture didn't matched the lust and urgency the rest of body displayed and maybe for that it filled the older man with something... warm. Something he couldn't put a name on but felt pushing from within him to be set free. To reach the boy's ears.

"P-potter... I" Snape tried at a complete lost of words.

"Yeah, professor..." Harry said for him out of breath. "I feel it too..."

In that instant, the older man felt his need explode and he woke up.

 

<<*>>

He was on the bed, lying on his stomach, still thrusting his hips forwards, only that not so much on his hand, as he had in the dream, but really into the mattress. When he regained full consciousness, Snape took a quick look at his surroundings and was about to thank the gods no one was there to see him like that when, suddenly, Potter walked in.

"Good morning, Snape." The boy said with a goofy smile on his face.

The older man could only answer with a frustrated grunt because of course Potter would be there, that was just... karma, if one believed in such thing. However, trying to be optimistic for a change, he thought: 'Well he really just walked in, how much could he have seen?'

"So... I see you are actually having a good morning." The boy continued in a playful tone and of course, it was karma, Snape was sure now. 

"I brought you some breakfast and I know I know, you're not hungry, but you should start eating anyway professor, maybe that does the trick." Harry said as he approached the bed and placed a silver tray with food on the nightstand.

Snape wasn't on the mood to look at the brat's face, especially so after such a disturbing dream like the one he just had. So instead, he turned his head to the boy's side but kept his eyes on the floor. And that's when he saw it.   
Potter was babbling about how tasty his fry up bacon and scrambled eggs were but all Snape could think of was that stain, that brown stain on the carpet. 

'Mud...' he thought as images from the other night's dream came rushing back to his head.

Him, on the bathtub, covered in dirt. And Potter, crying next to him while trying to get him clean, mumbling something about being too late. Yes, how could he forget? it had been quite a dream. Except it hadn't been a dream. Had it? He had suspected as much but now the proof was right there, beneath the boy's feets.   
If the mud left there that night, no doubt as the boy had dragged his lifeless body across the bedroom, had been real enough to leave a stain on the carpet, then the whole thing had been real. And if that hadn't been a dream then... what about last night? Could that be real too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so did you like it? Can you tell what’s going on. As always I would love to hear your theories about it or just anything you’re hopping to happen :)


	7. Doubting & Acting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mud stain on the carpet makes Snape think it had all been real. But if that dream was real, could the others be real too? He’s tired of half truths and lies. The time has come for him to push Potter for answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D sorry again for taking so long to update :( I was really inspired to write the other story I’m working to finish and so this one had to wait.   
> This chapter was originally longer but the corrections were taking me too long and so I decided to publish what I got done so far.
> 
> As always:  
> “this” is for dialogue.  
> ‘this’ is for thoughts.  
> ~this~ is for remembered dialogue.
> 
> Ok, I really hope you like this chapter and tell me what you thought of it :) enjoy!

Snape couldn't believe his eyes. The stain was there, right there on the carpet. It was real, which meant...

'It was all real...' He thought feeling his blood run cold.

He had suspected it all along. That his dreams weren't simply dreams at all but actually revelations of some sort. He just never thought they were memories. True memories.  
Now the mud stain wasn't a conclusive evidence of that night, after all, it could have been left there by muddy boots or something similar and not necessarily by his dead unburied body being dragged across the room by Potter. But life had taught Snape not to believe in coincidences and so he wouldn't start believing now.   
Nevertheless, he couldn't rush into conclusions either, could he? He was patient, methodical and logical, so if anyone could solve the mystery around his... resurrection, it was him. But the stain was there, right in his face as if mocking him. And in the meantime, the boy's words kept coming back to his mind.

~I can't help you if you don't remember...~ He had said.

'Remember...' The brat's choose of words was another clue by itself that leaded to the same conclusion. There were things he had seen, things he had lived, if one could call it that, and forgot. Potter could be referring to that night, the night of the bathtub, the mud, his body covered in it... 

~You knew this Snape. It didn't occurred to you that if you forgot there must be a good reason?~ Potter had said that as well that day but, could it be true? Was he somehow blocking his own mind.

Snape was an expert in doing so when protecting information he possessed from others, dark wizards, Death Eaters, even the Dark Lord itself. It was like hiding something in a box and try to forget the box existed. He placed memories in dark corners of his mind and locked them from the view of others. He was used to do it, he just had never locked himself out of certain parts of his own mind. But now... maybe he had?

He was so deep in thoughts he didn't noticed the boy was staring him until he heard him say:

"Let it go Snape." And he wasn't smiling anymore. 

Snape didn't know why that mattered if he had so much more present problems to deal with at the moment, but it mattered. He would never admitted it but he had started to get use to see him smile, to see him struggle with words and blush for Merlin knew what reason with a shy smile planted on his face, to see him... if not completely happy, at least at ease.   
But now he seemed troubled, concerned. His face looked... it looked so...

'Different from last night...' Snape thought, suddenly remembering why he had been avoiding to look at the brat's face that morning.

The dream... 'Please Merlin let it had been a dream!' He prayed while looking away from that face he could remember all too well moaning his name between gasps and whines.

It was disturbing. To think he would have a dream of such nature involving one, well, two of his students, it... it simply couldn't be but, what was the alternative? That it hadn't been a dream neither? That was even worse!  
He felt so wrong, not quite as having to watch another professor of Hogwarts being eaten by Nagini wrong, or as having to kill Dumbledore wrong, but close enough. He was the lowest, the most disgusting human being in both, the Wizarding and the Muggle World for thinking in a student, in his eyes still a child, in that way but... it didn't made any sense, he had never seen the boy, or any boy or man for that matter, under that light before! He... he couldn't...

"Please Snape, just... stop." Harry said and that was it! Snape was done letting the brat read his every thought.

"Mr Potter..." He growled with anger and it hit him as strange that as he sat on the bed, instead of rushing out to help him like he had done in the past days, Potter would now advert his gaze and simply stand there, as if frozen in place, looking awkward.

He didn't, however, had time to pay much attention to that. At the moment, his only concern was getting to the bottom of the big fat pile of lies the brat had thrown upon him and so he rose from the mattress on his own the best that he could.  
His body wasn't feeling as light and agile as in his supposed dream but it was almost back to normal now. His legs still trembled a little from the effort but at least he was able to strode towards the boy.

"I said this before and I don't intent to repeat myself every time." He continued as he cornered the brat against the nightstand where the other stood. "Get- the bloody hell out- of my mind."

"Snape I- I'm not-" He babbled as expected but he was not looking up, or down, just sidewises and his face seemed to be turning different shades of red by the second.

"You what, Mr Potter? Speak at once and stop the damn babbling, you're not a seventh year anymore!" 

"I'm not doing it on purpose." Came his reply but what did he meant by that? He wasn't reading his mind on purpose or he wasn't babbling on purpose?

Snape was just about to demand an answer to that when something caught his eyes and his attention shifted.

There, in the boy's neck, was something the older man was not prepared to see. Another...stain, a mark, a sign. Just like the one on the carpet but this one had been left there by teeths, the Weasley girl's teeths. He had saw it happen but... it couldn't be real.

'Merlin don't let it be real...' Snape thought as he reached a hand to prove his eyes wrong because yes, that had to be it. 

Now he would cover the bruised skin with his palm and when he withdrew his hand its redish and purple colors would be gone so... 

'Be gone.' He repeated on his head like a mantra and he had never moved his limb so slow but what could he do? He was afraid of finding out the truth. But he had to, he needed it to for it was worst not knowing.

So he took a step forwards and now Potter had nowhere to run. He was trapped between the nightstand and the older man's body, their chests no more than an inch or two from touching and then his fingers finally came in contact with the skin of the boy's neck.

"P-professor..." He heard him say and why did the brat sound so out of breath all of the sudden? 

Never mind that, the visibly shiver that went through his former student's whole body was even more disturbing but... then again, there seemed to be a reason for that reaction.  
The bruised skin kept its colours and Snape was starting to feel repulsed. It had been real. He had... done that, let himself be tempted by a student, a boy 20 years younger than himself, a man no less and on top of all, Lily and James Potter's son, his first and only love, and his former enemy, the man that in his youth had made his life a living hell. 

Snape didn't knew what to do with himself, what to say to the person standing right there so close to him, how to look to those inquisitive eyes and say something, anything!  
And then suddenly, luckily, it wasn't up to him anymore.

"Snape... I-" The boy started saying looking down, but it caught the older man's attention that by doing so the blush on his cheeks extended to the rest of his face.

And so Snape followed his eyes and if he hadn't been completely horrorized before, he definitely was now because there, on the front of his tunic, a distinctive stain of dry seed could be seen.  
Yes, he remembered having reach his climax in last night’s 'dream', if he could still pretend it had been that, but he never though he had... spilled himself in bed while 'dreaming' of Potter for Merlin's sake!

He was just about to take a step back to put some distance between them when, suddenly, he heard the brat gasp, and before even knowing it he had practically jumped backwards because yes, he recognized that sound from last night, that soft, small, wanton sound, and it wasn't good that it had came accompanied with something poking at his leg.

"Potter!" Snape growled with exasperation at seeing the tent on his former student's pants. "You are an adult now! This kind of behavior is unacceptable."

"Sir, I- I-" The boy stammered desperly covering his front with both hands as his face turned as red a tomato.

"Nor it is excusable!"

"But- but you are-" Harry tried to argue looking down at the older man's own pants and Snape could read his intentions all too well but he was having none of that.

"I what? Mr Potter?" He said taking a step forward because he was Severus Snape and he had been ridiculed all his life but he would be damn if he let a student, Harry Bloody Potter no less, make him feel embarrassed over some natural physical response beyond his control. And yes, he understood it was exactly the same thing for the boy but he was older and the brat's former teacher on top of that, so he was owned some respect even if the night before had really happened.

"No- nothing." The boy finally said after a few minutes of opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of the water.

It was a win for Snape, getting Potter not to address the matter of his little... wet dream. But it was a small victory and the dream itself was an elephant they would have to kick out of the room if they would ever get to the main issue.  
So Snape took a deep breath and forcing himself to look undisturbed, he said:

"We need to discuss this." As he pointed a hand towards the brat's crotch no matter how blunt that seemed. "We need to discuss last night."

And then, right there on the boy's countenance was all the confirmation he needed. His colored face had suddenly became paperwhite and his eyes spoke volumes of terror and shame So much shame.   
Yes, it had been real and to know it for a fact was now starting to ring an alarm on Snape’s mind. But he needed Potter to admit it and the boy wasn't talking. He just stood there, frozen, covering his front as if he life depended on it, looking at the older man with fear that it was uncommon for him to show to his most hated professor.

"Mr Potter..." Snape said trying hard not to lash out at his former student knowing it would only make things worst. "You know me mad, from freshman year, from the second time we've met and only because the first time there was a crowd of kids and teachers between us, and believe me, there will be time for me to be mad at you, obviously, but now is not the moment for that. So hopefully you can appreciate this... peace offer and start talking."

A few moments went by and the older man was starting to lose patience when, finally, Harry replied.

"What do you... remember? From last night, I mean." The boy said looking down, clearly unable to meet his former professor's eyes.

And Snape was no better, he too wanted to fly from that scene, he too wanted to tear his eyes away from the child in front of him and pretend nothing happened but he couldn't. It was time to end this.

"I remember everything." He said forcing himself to remain as calm as if he were discussing the weather, as methodical as if their conversation were about potions. "I remember seeing you with Miss Weasley, downstairs, in the middle of a sexual intercourse."

"S-nape, please could you... not use the expresion 'sexual intercourse' for what we were doing?" Came the boy's reply as he suddenly stopped covering his crotch and walked towards the closet. "It's called making love, Ginny, she- she's my wife."

"Is that so?" Snape had to comment feeling irritated about the brat lying to him even in this. "I was under the impression that you were divorced, Mr Potter." He finished with contempt making the boy turn around in surprise and yes, everything was back to normal ‘on the front’, the older man thanked.

"What? How would you get that impression Snape?" Harry asked as he quickly turned around towards the closet once more and started searching for something.

"Well, the conversation between you and your son was rather clear."

"You heard that?" Harry asked suddenly coming to a stop on his task and for a minute Snape thought he would turn around to face him again. When he didn't, the former professor continued.

"You're divorced, or at the very least separated from your partner, you're father of more than one child but you live here alone and you keep the fact that you're hosting a former professor of Hogwarts, a Death Eater on top of that, a secret to all, including the mother of said childrens."

"So you knew even before I told you." Harry said more to himself than for the other to hear but he did heard. "That years had past since..."

"I knew, and believe me, there's nothing I would rather discus than that, but right now we need to clarify something first."

"And what could that something be professor?"

Snape took another deep breath through his nose and said:

"Last night, when I went downstairs-"

"Put this on!" The brat interrupted him suddenly turning around with a clean change of clothes on his hands. "You can't expect us to- to discuss something serious while wearing... well that, it's dirty Sir. Here." He said extending the pants and tunic he had taken from the closet and the older man could see that now the blush was back on the boy's face.

That brought Snape to the limit of his patience. Not lashing out, lashing out, accusing, asking nicely, well as nicely as he could manage of course, it didn't mattered. Potter would start babbling, blushin and then find a way to avoid the subject, ran off, leaving him and then came back as if nothing had happened. But 'No more, no bloody more.' He told himself.

So he snapped the offered clothes from the boy's hands with contempt and said:

"A little privacy would be polite, Mr Potter, or is that you don't think is needed between us anymore?." Not missing the way his former student's eyes widened a little before he quickly averted his gaze from the other's face.

"N-no, of course it is, professor." He stammered as he took a step towards the door. "I'll wait outside."

"Not - so - fast, Potter." Came Snape's reply and every word of the sentence had been purposely accentuated to create more impact. "If you could just face the wall that would be enough."

"B-but Snape I-" Harry protested but the older man would have none of it.

"Turn around and face the wall at once!" He growled with exasperation.

"Fine, fine. I'm turning around." The boy announced as he effectively turned towards the closet once more.

'Perfect.' Snape thought putting his plan in motion.

First things first, yes, he was still wearing dirty clothes and he hated to be anything less than neat, contrary to public believes. So he took the clean clothes and quickly changed thanking Merlin he was in fact in more control of his body than he had been in the past days since he 'rose from the deads'.  
Once that was done, quietly, he grabbed the pillow from the bed and took its case off, he would be needing it for the next and more tricky part of the plan.

"I'm almost done, Mr Potter, is not the easiest thing to fit in another person's clothes." Snape commented, the muggle expresion 'chit chat' crossing his mind but what could he do? He needed to make the boy start talking so he wouldn't heard him approaching him.

"Oh, but those are your size, professor." The boy replied and he still seemed nervous but somehow a little more at ease than before. "I took the liberty to check the size of your old clothes, you know, the ones you left back on Hogwarts and I bough-" He was saying when he felt something hit him from behind and he fell to the ground.

Snape had took one of the chairs by the table and used it to knock the boy out. Now he had a few seconds in which Potter would be face on the floor not knowing what hit him, to make sure he wouldn't be moving anytime soon.  
So he took the pillow case as he went down on his knees, placing one of them on the centre of the boy's back and the other at his side, and then tied Harry's wrists together behind.

"Wh-what the hell Snape?!" Came his panicked complain.

"So you're not unconcient. Good." The older man commented standing up and going to the closet.

The boy was desperly starting to fight against his bonds and they alone wouldn't hold much. So Snape took a scarf he found and going down once more, he secured the thrashing legs together with a strong knot. Only now he had some useful time at hands to get the answers the man on the ground wouldn't give willingly.

"You may be the boy who lived because you survived His killing curse once..." The older man said turning the boy around on the wooden floor with some effort so that he would be facing him. "...well I on the other hand, am the man who survived a life time at his mercy, at his service, every day of his existence since he recluted me. Everyday, Potter!" He growled and it made Harry fear the man would hit him but the blow never came.

"And I didn't accomplished that with magic but with my brain, something you apparently lack of because now you are foolish enough to believe you can deceive me. Me?" He continued.

"Snape, I- I'm not deceiving you!" The boy tried but knew his former professor had been thinking that for days now and so he wouldn't be easily convinced otherwise.

"Oh you're not? Then perhaps you wouldn’t care to tell me what happened last night. Start with that."

"Last- last night? Of all the things that's what you're interested in Snape?!" The boy practically yelled on his face, cheeks turning red and the older man knew then he struck a sensitive spot. Hell, it was sensitive even for himself.

"It’s important because I know Potter." He replied after a few moments. "I've been having fragments of memories coming back to me and as... disturbing as they are I could accept them all as real except for one thing."

"What thing?"

"You, Potter, or what should I call you?" Snape said with contempt because this wasn't Lily's son, this wasn't the boy he had been watching over all his life, that boy wouldn't have... done what the man from his supposed dream had done, he wouldn't have got... aroused in his presence like this one did just a moment ago. No, the man on the ground was another person entirely. He just needed to find out who.

As if reading his mind, and very much likely doing it, the boy suddenly started to fight harder against the cloths tying him.

"You- can't possibly think that I am not me! Please Snape!" He said between clenched teeths, clearly in pain due to the tight knots on his wrists and the awkward position in which his arms were, bended behind his back and under his own body.

"Well, let me enlighten you." Came Snape's reply. "As slightly but not too strange as it to see myself roaming around in the Dark Forest behind your reckless butt, and beyond that, as considerably strange as it is to see my own body, unburied, separated from my soul but still breathing, is still you what's truly out of place in those memories, it's you what’s out of character."

"Me, seriously? Why? Because for once it was me who was trying to save your sorry ass, professor?!" Harry asked accentuating the last four words to create an impact of his own.

"Well, that is unlikely of you yes, but what's even more unlikely, impossible even I would say, is for you to be crying and saying that you need me, and for you to be... touching my body as if... as if you enjoy it, for Merlin's sake!"

"Snape I- I can explain that." The boy said and now the fear was becoming terror in his eyes but that was good, 'better than good', the older man thought.

"I can too explain it." He replied in a deep tone. "As I said, I know Potter, and you are not him." He finished and his hands went to check the man's pockets. 

For a second, Harry failed to understand what he was doing, but then it hit him.

"S-stop it, I told you I can't use magic!" He complain but knew it wouldn't discourage the man.

"Even if that were truth, which I don't believe is the case, old habits are hard to let go." Snape said standing up and throwing a quick glance to his surroundings. "You must still keep your wand at hand, but... not here." And with that he left the bedroom.

"Wh- Snape! Don't!" Harry yelled but it was too late, the man was gone.

In his 'dream', the former professor had saw two more rooms on that floor and one had to be the brat's bedroom. So he opened the door to the one right next to his own and that was it! Gryffindor colors on curtains and bed sheets, pictures of a happy family he had no time to criticize, yes, definitely his, ofcourse, if this was truly Harry Bloody Potter. And if he was an impostor then he deserved extra points for imitating even the boy's taste.  
Be that as it may, once inside, Snape went for the nightstand and there it was! On the small drawer, Potter's wand. That had been easy enough and sure, it would have been better to find his own wand but luck had never really been on his side so this was a big win.

 

Snape was about to take the wand and leave when something else caught his attention. A book, an old gray book with a black cauldron on the front cover. His old advanced potions making school book. He had suspected Potter had found it when he heard about his incredible improvement on potions on his sixth year and confirmed his theory when the brat casted that spell on Malfoy, 'sectumsempra', a spell of his own making. But after so many years he never would have guessed the boy would still have it with him.

That made him doubt of himself. Was the one tied up on the adjacent room truly an impostor? Or was he really Potter. If he was him then…

'No.' Snape told himself. There was no point in guessing. He would scape that place but first he needed to know the truth.

With that in mind he marched once more to where the boy lay, still struggling against his bonds, a desperate look in his eyes that only seemed to get worst when he saw his former professor came to a stop right by his side and look back at him.

"Snape don't-" He tried already knowing what was coming.

"Legilimens" The older man said preparing for the flow of images he was certain would come but nothing happened.

It couldn't be. Twenty years, of course if that part of the story he had been told was true, were time enough for the brat to learn to control his own mind. But his former student didn't look like he was in control at all, he seemed on the edge of panicking if anything so he should at least be able to see something, anything!

"Legilimens!" He tried again focusing even more in penetrating the boy's mind but still nothing.

'Something is wrong...' The older man could tell because he wasn't... feeling it. He wasn't feeling his magic flowing inside his body. That stream of power he should be feeling even if the boy were blocking his attempts.

"It's- it's really fine Snape." Harry said in what he knew was meant to be a reassuring tone. "We'll work to fix it, I promise."

'Fix it? What the bloody hell is the brat talking about now?!' Snape wanted to yell but he keep it to himself.

And then, suddenly, it hit him. It wasn't that the brat was blocking him. It was his magic. Something was wrong with his magic.

"Aberto!" He exclaimed pointing the wand towards the closed window and almost fell to his knees when nothing happened.

It was... gone? His magic was-

"No! Snape, listen to me, we'll fix it!" Harry said interrupting his line of thought but it didn't help.

Snape didn't wanted to listen to his lies, no, at that moment he didn't even wanted to learn the truth. He just wanted to be alone, alone in his mind, alone in every possible way a person could be alone.

So without even thinking he let go of the wand, only realizing it hit the floor when he heard it collapse against the wooden floor, and then he exited the bedroom.

"Sir wait!" He heard the boy say but he was already by the stairs.

With his mind clouded and his body exhausted, the older man tripped in one of the steps and fell. His body rolled the rest of the way down the stairs with a loud noise and he heard his former student scream his name. Then... blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did you liked it? :) I always love comments, suggestions and just about anything you had to say. I’ll update as soon as I can :)


	8. Revealing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tables have turned and now Harry is in control again, but at least, he’s finally willing to start talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! :) this is probably the longest chapter on this fic so far and that’s why it took me forever to complete it, really sorry about that :(  
> Also, due to a suggestion on last chapter’s comments, I realize some more tags were in order. Sorry for not noticing this sooner as I kinda always knew where this story was heading but never thought it would be… enough for a tag.  
> Sorry if it doesn’t make much sense but I thought it would be only fair to warn you about the tags.
> 
> Ok, that being said, please enjoy this chapter and I hope you’ll tell my what you think :D

"Snape!" He heard him yell and he sounded desperate.

'Potter. Always Potter, of course.' Snape thought with resignation remembering all those other times in which he had awoken at the sound of the boy calling his name.

This time, however, when he awoke, he wasn't in bed on the room he knew well from the previous days, but sprawled, face down, in a wooden floor. Potter's living room, if he remembered it from the dream correctly, at the foot of the staircase if he remembered his disastrous fall correctly.

'Perfect.' Snape told himself in a sarcastic tone that even coming from within his mind sounded reproching.

He had been clumsy. Too sickened with the idea of the man upstairs being really Potter, and in addition to that matter, too concerned with the apparent loss of his magic, he had go and triped like an imbecile troll. And now here he was.

'Really strategic, Severus.' He reproached himself once more with sarcasm.

Snape was just about to try to get up when, suddenly, his own voice wasn't the only one he could heard on his mind.

'Come back to me...' And he felt something strange, like a pull of something starting in the center of his chest and spreading.

'Potter?' He thought, hearing the familiar voice repeat the call and it sounded so concerned and desperate but... it was an order, the tone was clear.

'Come back to me professor...' Potter said a third time and Snape felt the pull getting stronger and himself starting to fell asleep.

One moment he was downstairs, the floor in his line of vision, the next, he was in the bedroom, standing besides the boy, watching him from above as he lay there, still tied.

"How... did I?" He started to ask but the brat interumped him.

"Later, Snape." He simply said, clearly upset. "Now if you excuse me I have to go check your troublesome ass, professor."

"You- impertinent brat." The older man growled ready to scold the boy for speaking at him with such disrespect but, in an instant, found himself speechless.

"Relashio!" He heard Potter say and a purple light invaded the room. The next thing he knew, the boy, who now apparently could do wandless magic, was untied and already rising from the ground.

"That was nasty of you Snape, well... nastier than usual, I guess." Harry said going to the door. "Now, you better not have any broken bones." He finished and yes, despite the bitter comment the brat was obviously worried.

'What did he mean by 'go check'? He was right there, wasn't he?' Snape was asking himself but he feared he already knew the answer.

By the time he followed the boy to the staircase, he almost knew what to expect. And yet that didn't make the scene before his eyes easier to see.

"Don't worry too much professor, nothing seems out of place or broken." The boy was saying as he took the unconscious body, sprawled on the floor downstairs, and turned on his back.

It was him, his body at least. But his soul wasn't attached to it, or so it seemed. It was disturbing in every level it could possibly be, but he wasn't knew to the feeling.

"I'll explain everything, Snape, I will, I promise." He heard Potter say and then everything went dark once again.

~*~

His muscles ached. That was the first thing he noticed before he even tried to open his eyes, that he felt as if his body had been used as a Bludger in a Quidditch game.

"Well that's rather normal if you roll down the stairs instead of walking through the steps." The boy commented with amusement, his voice coming from somewhere near at his right.

'Of course it had to be Potter. Again.' Snape thought not even surprised by that fact.

Reluctantly to do so, the older man opened his eyes and quickly took in his surrounding before looking at the brat with disapproval.

"You know, Potter..." Snape said with contempt. "... this annoying, constant and most unpleasant habit of yours of replying to my every thought when you haven't been addressed to, is impolite and, as a matter of fact, is getting old."

"Are you telling me you can't control your mind enough to block me, professor?" Harry said with a smirk, putting special emphasis on the world 'control'.

Snape was about to reply, an insult already on the tip of his tongue as he tried to sit on the bed, and that's when he realized it. That now it was him the one tied down.

"Release me!" The older man spat as he pulled at the leather straps confining his wrists at each side of the bed.

"I'm sorry professor, I can't do that." Harry replied. "Not for the moment at least."

"So I am your prisoner now? What if I would rather be in Azkaban?" He asked, not missing the hurt that flashed through the green eyes staring at him at his comment.

He saw the boy open his mouth as if he were to answer but then... nothing. He pressed his lips in a thin line, and remained in silence.

"Did the Ministry really order my capture? Was there a trial at all?" Snape pushed.

Again, silence. Eyes dowcasted. Not really a good sign.

"Does anyone even know I am alive?!" The former professor asked, feeling his patience running out by the minute. 

Of course, this too went unanswered. And so he choose to change strategy.

"Who are you? Alecto? Amycus? Corban? No, this would be rather unlikely of them."

"I don't know who those are Snape but if they're Death Eaters, they're probably dead or in Azkaban so..."

"Oh so that part of the story tale was real then." The older man questioned with a smirk, pleased with himself for making the brat talk again.

"I know you don't believe me but most of the story I told you is real." He heard him said and if he didn't knew better he would say the boy sounded sincere. "We did killed Voldemort, the war did happen, those fifty five people... friends, did died Snape! I wouldn't joke about-"

"Well I don't know who you are so I guess I wouldn't know that, would I?" Snape interrupted him.

"I am Harry Potter. You have to know that deep down, you've been watching me my whole life! Or... at least since I was eleven. You know me!"

"Precisely. I know Harry Potter and the one I saw in the Dark Forest, the same I saw last night, it wasn't him. He loathed me."

"Yes, before, and I told you why that changed Snape." Harry replied with a pleading tone. "Is it really that hard to believe that I- that I could-?"

"Oh, believe, no amount of gratitude can turn hatred into... lust." Snape said, grimacing when the last word left his lips.

He saw the boy’s hurted expression but couldn't possibly imagine why it was there, plastered on his face, when all he should be showing,all he should be feeling, was disgust.

"Lust." He heard him say after a few moments and now he sounded somewhat sad. "Is that what you think that was?"

And just 'what kind of question was that?' The older man thought. "What else would it be?" He asked out loud.

The answer never came. The boy just remained there, sitting very still, in silence, clearly trying to come up with something to say.

Snape was just about to yell him to snap out of it, when suddenly, he started speaking again.

"Look, Snape, I'm not- nearly ready to discuss this just yet, not now, not... with you like this." He said looking at the older man's tied wrists apologetically. "But I want to prove to you that I'm me, so tell me, what do I have to do for you to know for sure?"

Snape considered the question for a few second before replying: "You could get me some veritaserum to use on you." Enjoying the despair he saw flashing through the boy's eyes.

"I- I don't have any and you know I could never brew some properly." Harry replied feeling miserable.

"Of course you couldn't, I was being sarcastic."

"Then what? I could- I could tell you something only I would know and, well, that you too have recollection of, like... Oh, I know, like what you said on my first potions class, on my first year!" Harry said too obviously cheered for Snape's taste.

"The rest of your classmates was there as well." He commented trying to discourage him. "And besides, you wouldn’t remember that now, would you? You weren’t even paying at-"

"I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to brew glory,bottle fame, and even put a stopper in death." The boy finished and the former professor could barely keep his jaw from dropping to the floor.

His carefully worked neutral expression, however, wasn't fooling Harry and so the younger wizard allowed himself to smile and continue. He said:

"You thought I wasn't paying attention, but I was actually writing it all down." And his eyes seemed lost for a minute, as if they were seeing the past, that day he was referring to maybe, rather than the present. "What you said that day, I remember I thought 'this man can really accomplish all that with a potion? That's impressive.' And then of course you had to go and ruin the good impresion I was trying to get of you."

"I trust you didn't strived too much?" Snape commented with sarcasm once he overcame the surprise of Harry's last declaration.

"Well, you didn't exactly 'exceed expectations' the first time I saw you. Or rather you did." The boy replied with a smile on his face. "You were sitting there, looking like a bat, glaring at me across the great hall, and my scar begun to burn me!"

"Yes, I remember your contorted face quite well, as a matter of fact, it was a despicable sight."

"Oh and I got another one!" Harry said a little too excited for the situation they were actually in. "You remember that time you caught me on night time wandering on the corridors?"

"Which one of all the times I caught you doing that?" At this, Harry chuckled.

"The time I had the Marauder's map on my hands, you know? Old, very rude piece of parchment? Really useful at times?"

"Yes, what about it?" Snape asked with impatience as he was now curious about where the boy was trying to get at.

"Well you made me read it and a joke appeared, remember?"

"Vaguely." The older man lied, remembering very well what that cursed magical object, propriety of that bunch of swines, had revealed for him specially.

"Well I didn't found it all that funny really." His former student, who in that opportunity had shown his most arrogant side, now said shily. "I- well I mean... you don't have a large nose. Is like... is not a small nose but it goes well with your face." He finished and was the brat blushing again?!

"Oh, do shut up now Potter!" Snape spat feeling their conversation drifting towards an unwanted path for both of them.

"So... is any of that proof enough?"

"Not nearly conclusive as you still could be someone else under the effects of polyjuice potion who managed to break the real Potter's laughable barriers into his mind to come to me now with such memories and have believe it's really him." Snape said sternly. "But- it will suffice, for now."

At hearing the professor's theory, Harry could only stare at him, his jaw dropped comically because it was so like Snape to believe in a carefully elaborated conspiracy against him than to accept Harry's feelings towards him had somehow changed.

Nevertheless, there would be time to discuss that, time for Harry to prove the man he was wrong about him, but now was not it. Now, there were much more present matters to attend to. Things that needed to be set right.

"Snape I- I'm going to tell you the truth about how... you're alive right now." Harry said and he instantly felt his heart racing.

'Finally.' Snape thought as tried to straighten his posture on the bed, momentarily forgetting the leather straps forbidden it.

Harry noticed this but knew better than to comment on it, unless he were prepared for being yelled at. And so, he simply continued.

"But first you have to promise me something."

Trying to conceal the discomfort the movement had provoked, as well as the embarrassment that came with having forgetting about the straps in the first place, Snape sternly replied: "I'm listening."

"You- you have to promise me you will let me finish, the whole story, before you... well, lash out at me or- something."

The older man could almost find the request amusing. But he was still tied to bed, powerless, having to accept any demand the brat decided to impose on him if he desired to know the truth, so no, he wasn't amused at all.

"Potter, you have me chained like an animal, not to mention clearly magically restricted as well. So tell me..." Snape said throwing a glare at the boy sitting next to his bed. "...what threat do I posible represent to you?”

At hearing his words, Harry winced.

"Sir, is- not that I fear you'd hexe me, altho I'm sure that's probably what you want to do right now, is just that... your words always got to me Snape." He said looking down. "They hurted more than... I don't know, my classmates calling me a liar after Cedric's death, more than Ron calling me a liar before that, even more than... Draco telling me if I were any slower, I'd be going backwards. He did thought I was Goyle at that time tho, but still."

"Oh, spare me Potter." Said the older man, desperate to put an end to the boy's excessive sentimentalism.

"What? Is true, I swear! So please just, remember that before lashing out at me, just... just wait until I'm finished explaining myself and then, if you still want to insult me, I'll hear every word of it, I promise." Harry requested with pleading eyes.

Snape felt tempted to say no, just so he could crash the boy's hopes. But then he remember he would get nothing of it, besides the temporary satisfaction, of course, and so instead, his reply was:

"Fine, I shall wait until you finish. Anything else?"

"Yes." And didn't the brat had some nerves?

"Do tell." He said fighting the impulse to roll his eyes.

"My son, Al..." Harry started looking something between shy and hopeful. "...he's coming to visit this weekend, meaning tomorrow."

"I fail to see how that concerns me." Snape replied dryly and were his arms free from that cursed straps, he would be crossing them in front of his chest right about now.

"Well, the thing is that he... he's really fond of you Sir, he admires you, very much actually."

'How could that be so?' He thought. Did the brat's brat even knew who he was beyond knowing his name and how he looks dead asleep? Anyhow, at loud he simply said:

"Go to the point." And luckily, Potter did.

"After I tell you the truth you.. probably won’t want to see my face in a while, but, if only for this weekend, would you agreed to meet him?" Harry asked not knowing what he would do if the answer were to be no. 

Al had grew up hearing about the man from him and would be truly disappointed if, knowing he was now awake, the former professor refused to see him. So when Snape didn't replied right away, Harry continued.

"You won't have to watch over him and I'm not asking for you to tell him stories or anything like that, just to... meet him, it would really meant a lot for him."

Once again, Snape considered saying no but really, it wouldn't hurt to meet Potter's child and besides, children were easier to intimidate and interrogate. If his father here didn't let his tongue loose anytime soon, that may be just what he would need to do, so his decision was made.

"Is that all?" He said, his expresión neutral.

"Y-yes, that's all." Came Harry's reply and the older man could tell he was now holding his breath.

"Fine, Mr Potter, you have my word that I'll do as you asked. Now start speaking."

There was another long moment of silence in which Snape didn't thought the boy would live to tell him what really happened, for he was still not breathing. The brat had gone pale and his throat seemed to be fighting to swallow the lump there without much suxeed.

He was just about to give the child a piece of his mind for keeping him waiting when, finally, he started speaking.  
His mumbling was unintelligible beyond a few words on the line of 'well' and 'here it goes' and 'dear Merlin', but at least it was a start. The older man had only to bite his tongue to prevent himself from lashing out and, after what it felt like the 20 years he had missed, Potter finally said:

"Snape that- that night, on the Shrieking Shack, you... well, you... died." And his voice was so soft, so quiet, Snape thought he might had imagine it.

He knew, however, he hadn't. And now it was him the one fighting to swallow the lump in his throat, him, the one averting his eyes from the other's gaze. He was pathetic, he thought when his brain catched up with his body's reaction and the renewed pain in the brat's eyes told him he had heard that, his self remark.

"I suspected something of this nature had..." He rushed to say but then trailed off. "No, I was- certain, that was what happened."

"Snape..." He heard the boy sitting next to him call his name with so much hurt and somehow knew what he was about to say. 'I'm so sorry, I could have stopped it, stoped him. I could have- I should have saved you...' And it was ironic, that now it felt like it was him the one reading the brat's mind.

He discarded that thought as fast as it came but just in case that was what Potter was meaning to tell him, he said:

"I do not need your pity. Nor did I needed to be saved back then like helpless damsel." He growled and for a second, he saw surprise flashing through his former student's pained expression. Nevertheless, he went on. "What I need from you Mr Potter, the- only- thing I need, is for you to tell me what happened after my- decease."

The boy seemed lost in his own thoughts for a moment, but at hearing the man's last words he finally continued.

"After- that, we... left you there and it was wrong of us professor, I'm-"

"Stop." He interrupted him. "Potter, I will die of old age laying here, waiting to hear the end of this story if you insist on keep babbling and apologizing at every detail of it."

"I- get that." Harry replied, stopping himself from saying sorry once again.

"Good. Remember it and do continue."

And so the boy took a deep breath and all too obviously, forced himself to look into the older man's eyes as he started talking again.

"After we left the Shrieking Shack, the rest happened as I told you, I saw your memories, found out I had to die and that Voldemort himself had to do it, and so I went to the Dark Forest and let him kill me."

"So you did die." Snape said at that point, the question lingering in his tone.

"I did and I was given the chance to come back, so I took it, as you see." The boy replied and rushed to continue before the man could make a snarky comment about it. "We're not dead."

"Mr Potter-" He begun.

"I know you've been thinking it, Snape. That you died and this is some kind of... limbo, or something."

'More like hell.' The older man thought.

"Hell..." His former student repeated out loud. "Well, thanks Snape, really flattering."

"If is any consolation, I was planning to keep that particular theory to myself but, since you seem so fond of entering my mind uninvited, enjoy yourself." Snape said, himself enjoying the hurt he saw on the other's face.

"Well, we're not. In hell, I mean." The boy replied, faking a smile. "We're quite alive."

"Joy." The former professor commented with sarcasm. "Now do continue to explain how that came to be, Mr Potter."

"Right, well you see, before I died I saw... everyone, everyone who was truly important to me, everyone I have... loved and lost. My parents, Sirius, Remus."

"They were-"

"There, on the Dark Forest,  
like... spirits." Harry said and seeing confusion flashing through his former professor's eyes, he continued. "I'm pretty sure it was the resurrection stone."

"The what?" Snape questioned, unable, if only for a brief moment, to conceal his surprise.

Harry look at him, a wave of anger taking over his emotions but, he too, tried to hide the feeling from the man.

"You didn't know about the hallows." He finally said, looking everywhere but at the other's eyes. "It doesn't surprise me, really. It was just like Dumbledore to keep everyone in the dark, even you... with all you did for him."

"I did nothing for him!" Snape growled, feeling irritated all of the sudden, but as to why that was, he didn't know.

The green eyes searched his own once more, clearly looking for an explanation he didn't even had himself.

"Snape-"

"No." He interrupted him. "Tell me about the hallows, they are real then?"

"Yes, very much." Harry replied taking a deep breath. "My father's invisibility cloak was one of them, Dumbledore's wand was another. The same wand Voldemort though you mastered when you killed him, the wand he attempted to master by killing you."

"That was the elder wand." Snape said absorbed in his own thoughts. Dumbledore had to know Voldemort would found out and kill his owner to master it.

"Yes." He heard the boy say probably in reply to his thoughts.

"Draco became his master... he was the one who disarmed Dumbledore. Of course I couldn't reveal that to the Dark Lord or he would have-"

"Killed Draco, I know. You protected him until the very end." Harry said with half a smile and Snape could tell he was trying to conceal an emotion. Disgust, maybe... 

Those emerald eyes seemed to dig holes on his soul and... no, it couldn't possibly be jealousy. Could it?

"And the resurrection stone." Snape quickly said before the awkwardness in the room became tiker.

"Dumbledore passed it to me when he died. It was hidden inside the snitch I catched on my first year."

"So you owned two of hallows?" The former professor questioned with disbelief.

"I- actually, came to own the three of them, Sir." Harry stammered. "I disarmed Draco, when we were taken hostages to the Malfoy manor."

"All three hallows." Snape said deep in his thoughts.

Suddenly the leather straps were too tight and the air in the room felt dense. He was now in the presence of the most powerful wizard alive, the master of the hallows, the master of dead.  
The Dark Lord had been consumed by power and not even him had acquired as much as the boy possessed now. It had driven Voldemort mad, turned him into something so far from from human that in the end, one could not longer see the man he once was.  
Now the question was: what had that much power done to Potter?

"Nothing." The boy said, inviding his thoughts once again. "I- I never wanted the power." He continued and he sounded so sincere. But Snape knew better than to believe anything that came out of that mouth.

"But you accepted it nevertheless." He said, unconsciously pulling at the leather binding his wrists.

Harry noticed this and rushed to replied.

"Well- yes but... look I didn't really had a choice. I had to kill him!" He assured but maybe raising his voice wasn't the smartest things to do, for he noticed the man beside him flinch.

"Of course you had to." Snape said, not noticing the way he was, as if by instinct, retreating away from the boy. Well, as far away as the straps would let him, that was.

"Yes! You- you know it was... necessary."

"Oh, Mr Potter, yes. I have seen people being tortured on the name of necessity, people being killed for information, for more power... for a wand."

"I'm not like that Snape!" Harry said fighting the impulse to reach for the man and shake some sense into him.

And as if not hearing his last declaration, the former professor went on.

"Yes, you killed the Dark Lord, but to do so perhaps you became the next- Voldemort." He said, forcing himself to pronounce the name he had spend so many years fearing.

"Snape-" Came a pleading tone he barely registered.

"And here I found myself again, at the mercy of yet another wizard that think himself above all others."

"I don't-"

"So tell me, should I been calling you my lord, or perhaps you prefer me calling you master as I bow to you feets." He finally said and could see the moment in which sadness turned to anger in his former student's face.

"Stop it already!" Potter growled and not a single note of his once soft and childish voice, could be heard in that deep, threatening sound.

It send a shiver through the older man's spine he couldn't hide fast enough.

"I'm sorry professor, I didn't mean to-" Harry tried as an apology but knew better than to say 'didn't mean to scare you', to the always prideful man. Instead, he could offer an explanation.

"I knew too much power would corrupt anyone." He begun, softening his tone. "That's why I didn't wanted it. I broke the elder wand and threw it to the lake, the Black Lake, as soon as the battle ended."

"You... broke the elder wand?" Snape asked in disbelief. He surely hadn't heard correctly.

"I did." The boy confirmed. "The damn thing would keep making people kill and get killed over it's power. The wizarding world was better off without it."

At hearing him talk about power in such a way, a sudden calm washed over the worst of Snape’s fear, for it confirmed the brat still had a gryffindor heart. He should have known, really.

"What about the invisibility cloak?" He asked after a few moments already suspecting what the answer would be.

"Well... that was my father's posesion, I- it was a gift, I-"

"You kept it." Said Snape interrupting the other's babbling.

"Yes Sir, I still have it with me."

"What about... the resurrection stone?" Snape questioned and the silence that followed wasn't a good sign.

"I got rid of it too, on the Dark Forest." Harry finally said but that couldn't be it. His face, now paler than it had been a few moments ago, told the older man something else happened.

"You got rid of it, but..." He said, accentuating the last word as to indicate the boy he knew there was something more he ought to tell.

"But I... went back, some time after, looking for it and I- I got it back." Harry said looking down, his hands now clenched in fists on his ripped jeans.

"Why?" Snape asked fearing the obvious answer but hoping there would be another explanation.

And then the boy looked at him, and taking a deep breath through trembling lips, he said:

"To bring you back."

The hallows being real, Potter coming to possess them all around the time he died, including the resurrection stone... the answer to the question of how he was alive right now couldn't be more obvious. Even Mr Longbottom receiving the same information would be able to put the pieces together and reach the conclusion but... still, he found himself refusing to accept it.

"What have you done?!" He growled, no longer caring if he broke the childish deal the imbecile boy besides him had imposed on him.

"I- I was trying to explain just that but you- hey you promised you wouldn't interrupt me or lash out-" His former student cried out, desperation clear on his voice.

"That was before I knew you had-" Snape started but a thought hit him. "I'm not even alive." He said more to himself than for the other person in the room to hear.

"Of course you're alive!" He heard him exclaim from somewhere at his right but it sounded distant.

"No, the legend said-?"

"I was getting to that." The boy interrupted him with urgency and he felt a strong grip on his forearm. "Look, the story about the brothers said that the second brother asked for his fiance to come back to life, right?"

"Yes, and she came back but was sad for she didn't belong to this word." He replied glaring at the boy's hand on his arm and then at his face with a murderous look.

"Th- that was because only her body came back, not her soul!" Harry stammered, taking his hand away from the man nervously.

"What?" Snape asked in confusion.

"The resurrection stone, it can raise a body from the death or it can bring back a soul, just as it did on the Dark Forest before I died. It brought back the souls of those I loved, but not their bodies." Potter explained with excitement. "Don't you see? It can't bring both." 

"Then that only confirms my previous point." Snape replied annoyed. "If I am here, alive, in body, then my soul-"

"It's right here too." Harry said with a fragile smile, placing a firm hand against the older man's chest where his heart was.

The gesture was gentile and the warmth of the palm against his body through the thin layer of the tunic, had the power to stop the shiver that had been running down Snape's spine ever since he heard the boy say 'you died'. However, it also made the memories of the previous night assault his brain and a new, different, kind of shiver, ran through his body.

"Remove your hand right this instant, Mr Potter." Snape growled once he was sure his voice wouldn't give away any emotion other than contempt.

"O-of course, professor. I'm sorry." The boy apologized turning as red as a tomato as he withdrew the hand, watching it with confusion like he himself didn't knew how it got there.

"What do you mean my soul is here too?" Snape asked decided to move on from the awkward moment. "You established, and I should hope you had some grounds to do so, that the resurrection stone couldn't bring both, body and soul, from the dead."

"Yes, that's correct but- sir, your soul was already here." Harry said and now his face was showing a different emotion, one the older man couldn't quite put his finger on. "Once I brought back your body using the stone, all I had to do was to- to attach your soul to it."

"You meant to say it didn't happen naturally?!"

"Snape none of this is natural." The boy laughed.

"Thank you for pointing the obvious Mr Potter." The former professor said with sarcasm.

"You're wellcome."

"So my soul was... here?"

"Well, not here here-" Harry joked waving a hand as to point the room they were in. 

"I mean in this world, you imbecile child!" Came Snape's growl indicating he shouldn't have made the joke.

"I know what you meant, I was just trying to... lighten the mood."

"Well, using the delicate matter of one's soul as material for a joke can hardly accomplish that."

"I know, I'm sorry." Harry said, truly feeling bad for the man.

He couldn't imagine waking up one day to found out he died twenty years ago, had been brought back to life and, to make it worse, with a method it didn't really assured his soul to back too.  
He would probably be hyperventilating by now, scared to death for the first minutes and then completely enraged. He would be throwing insults and punches at every direction, demanding to know why hadn't he be left to rest in peace. His life was his own and so was his death. He would be fuming with rage and...

And Snape wasn't showing any of those emotions right now. The man had a scold on his face, totally normal Snape of course, and was... lost in his thoughts? No, he couldn't hear any thoughts and it was unlikely the man had suddenly learned how to block him. So he wasn't thinking, he wasn't speaking, he wasn't even moving a muscle. He was just... sitting there, looking at an empty space in direction of one of the corners of the room.

Snape noticed the boy's eyes on him. That annoying stare that made him very aware of himself and all too uncomfortable for his taste, was traveling from his face all the way down his frame, and so he asked:

"What?" Expecting the brat would feel embarrassed for having been caught staring and would looked away.

But of course, when did anything turn out as he wish it did?

"You're not yelling." Came instead the boy's reply, his eyes more focused on him than ever.

"What?!"

"You're not yelling at me, lashing out, having an outburst of rage."

"I don't know what to say to you." He simply said and it was true. What could he say? Would it even matter what he had to say?

"Well that's... a first." Harry said with concern. He hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected this at all. "Are you feeling well?" He questioned.

"My wrists are numb." Snape replied absently only then remembering he was still tied.

"Oh Merlin, I'm sorry!" He heard the boy say and then felt his hands working the straps buckles open, one at a time. "There, I'm really sorry, I'll get you something for the pain, your back must be hurting from the fall as well. But you should really put something on your stomach first."

Snape realized then, that he still had not eaten. Ever since he woke up under Potter's... care, he had not feel hunger, or thirst or even the need to use the loo for Merlin's sake! Every natural need all living body had, his hadn't. 

Something was very wrong with him.

"It will get better, Snape. Give it some time." The boy said bringing the man back from his thoughts.

"Time?!" The former professor growled, a sense of uneasiness infesting his body through every nerv of his sistem against his mind's wishes. "In time would I need to eat or drink or sleep again? Would my head stop being your personal playground? Tell me Mr Potter. Asure me this. Would in time my soul stop slipping off my body at your beck and call?!"

"Snape-"

"It's the spell, is it not?" He interrupted any excuses the brat was about to make. "You used a spell to attach my soul to this- thing, and is not quite working. What a surprise."

"Hey, that- thing, you say, is your own body!" Came Harry's reply, his tone a little more harsh than intended.

"Please, my body died."

"And it was brought back! It's alive!"

"You keep telling yourself that. I'm not even sure my soul is my own anymore, that is- assuming I have one." Snape snarled looking at the boy with a murderous look, wishing he could just grab him by the front of his horrible shirt and threw him against a wall.

"What are you talking about? Of course it's your own soul! Weren't you the one who said he remembered things, things like- like last night?!" Harry yelled back and Snape crossed out his previous mental note, deciding it would be better to throw the brat through the window pane, that way he would at least be saved of having to see his moronic face turning red. Once again.

"And was that real?" Someone suddenly asked and he was surprised to found out it had been him.

"It- was." Harry replied forcing himself not to look down and keep his eyes locked with the man's ones so he would know it wasn't a lie. "It was real. And you weren't there in body but in soul, you- you know that Snape."

"I would rather not know." Came his voice, once again spilling out the contents of his mind and just what was wrong with him? 

"Even so, now you know. There's no denying your soul is real." The boy said finally adverting his eyes.

"And about the spell you used to attach it to this body?" Snape asked trying again to get past the awkaress in the room.

Harry took a deep breath but it was clear he wasn't preparing himself for speak but to depart.

"That is- a long story." He simply said, confirming the man's theory when he got up from the chair he had been sitting on and headed towards the door. "We'll save it for another time."

"Mr Potter-"

"Hey I promise to tell you how you're alive and I did it, didn't I?"

"Scarsly."

"But for now, please Snape, just- cope with-"

"I don't need to- cope with anything." He interrupted him, throwing another murderous look in his general direction for he couldn't, at least for the moment, look at the boy in the eyes again. He had been forcing himself to do so the entire time they had been talking but now he needed to just look away.

Harry noticed this and even though he had been preparing himself for this reaction ever since he decided to go through with his plan, it still hurt a lot more than he could have expected.  
He wasn't about to make the other man see that tho, so he tried a smile and simply said:

"Fine, just try to process what you've learn of the situation today and after Al's gone, we'll talk about the rest."

"You will explain to me what kind of spell you used and how our- little situation came to be." The man still inmovil on the bed demanded.

"Yes, professor. I promise I will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So did you like it? :D please tell me what you think of the story so far and if you have any suggestions or anything you’d like to say, I would love to hear it! :)


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